Actually, it is the opposite. A normal, sane person that takes a good hard look at the universe as we know it can come to no other conclusions than that there is much more to "reality" than we currently comprehend. Once you come to understand that, the world of possibilities opens up and you let go of the ridiculous certainty that reality is simply what we comprehend with our limited senses.

+1

It may be PC to express/exhibit great scepticism on this forum. Something admirable/to strieve for. Possibly I´m not PC here in this thread, by voting a 3. Even if I take good care not to believe in anything lightly.

I can't vote on this poll. Because my skepticism varies too much by category for me to be able to measure it.

Good post. But if you had to, which number would you choose in this particular poll, to be maximally honest to yourself and others?

I feel that the examples given about how to vote in this poll are not ideal. For a 1 there is the thing about how much credit you give to the expression "all-knowing god telling" and how much to accepting the fact that the Roman empire really existed. That confuses me.

For a 5 I should question the moon landings, even after scrutinizing their probability in the Fringe thread (). I would feel stupid if i did. It´s way more probable that my senses are wrong about that I have the computer in front of me right now . After all, people are crazy with some, not a minuscle, frequency . What if I´m one of them (may have taken this too far now, but anyway)?

The 10 is simply: "I think, thereby I exist, I may be dreaming the world up. Probably I´m not." Hey I´m agreing with that, honestly. Maybe I choose this number now, to look good. Give me the 10 too.

This is an honest statement. People hold certain ideas but act another way.

I think I will say 2-3 then.

I don't tend to doubt that events occurred when I hear about them. What I tend to doubt are the interpretations and/or that I am in receipt of all the information. There's usually a bias and lack of details when things are recounted.

Glad for some support for my 3. I tend to try to analyze the truth probability and extent, but when it´s done, I have to go with that, at least until complementary information shows up.

Choke on this:

http://www.csicop.org/si/


or this:


http://www.skeptic.org.uk/


or perhaps this:


http://www.skepdic.com/


-Zeno

'Reality' is a concept. However, the world, which full of facts, can be the case. And, in this way, we can perfectly access the world-- perception gives us facts that present themselves as being the case, which can be about the world.

We are not presented with 'representations', we are presented with 'facts'.

if you say so champ.

This is pretty much the same thing for me without other information. If someone starts telling me a story that I've read on snopes I'll immediately discount it substantially, and the same goes for religious stories that I have already heard with other names for the same characters.