Posts Tagged ‘skeptics’

Gaming and Critical Thought (Proposal)

In my everyday life I have been finding overlap between fellow skeptics and folks who game. That is to say, the people I know in real life and online who I would consider ‘critical thinkers’ and scientists have a notable affinity for playing complex and unique board games, dice games, or card games. It is not a closed-set of people by any means, but it makes me wonder: What do games teach us about thought? Are games good models for teaching integrity to kids (one of skep/dad’s claimed core pillars of critical thinking) or is it mere correlation? Or what else could we deduce from this seeming connection — if it even exists?

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Full text from January 25, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Critical Thought Toolkit, The Three Eyes

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What is Skepticism?

If you have stumbled upon this blog from some random web search looking for (as the otherwise-anonymous statistics suggest) information on playing music to your baby in the womb, optical illusions for kids, or even (on rare instance) banjo lessons, you may be wondering what exactly you have found in this site. I’ve tried to explain my own interpretation of capital-S Skepticism in my own little About Page by writing: Defined, skepticism is a method of rigorous thought where one suspends judgment, systematically doubts, and thinks critically about new ideas before accepting them as truths. But others, far more seasoned than I, have elaborated and pontificated much more deeply than I on the topic.

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Full text from January 21, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Community Skeptics, Skeptical Mindsets

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Future skep/dad Topics, Perhaps?

I’ve not had much time to sit down and write this week. Truth is, I scraped together some cash and bought myself a new notebook that has been occupying too much of my attention whilst I try out the many new features. That said, the plan in buying the new notebook was to give me more time and convenience in writing for this project (as well as a few others). Convenience? Well, it’s a notebook, so I can sit on the couch, put on some tunes, and type. Time? A rare commodity as a parent, but the new computer is, admittedly, a Mac so (as promised by the onslaught of advertising) its been running all weekend trouble free right out of the box. No more precious hours shared between changing diapers, reading aloud, and wireless connectivity maintenance. Of course, this gives me reason to pause and consider what I should write.

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Full text from January 20, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Meta-Skepdad

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Wanna Write for skep/dad?

Of course I’ll need to change some of the tag lines, but I am currently contemplating other contributers to this blog. Consider this a solicitation — and here’s why: I started this little project with some lofty goals of writing about “raising kids to become critical thinkers” and while that still applies and remains the core topic for this blog, a few important things have occurred to me…

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Full text from January 1, 2008 by Brad
Filed as: Meta-Skepdad

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Argument for a Local Skeptical Society

I must admit that the efforts of other united groups of skeptics around the world has recently given me the hope for the future of rational thought and the strength to pursue my own efforts at a higher level. I’ve spent a number of years struggling towards a goal that I had previously been unable to name or associate with a particular movement. In the past six months, I’ve stumbled upon and found a kind of kinship with an international skeptical movement and moved from a simple passive participant towards being someone who seeks to be more actively involved.

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Full text from October 25, 2007 by Brad
Filed as: Community Skeptics

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