Welcome back

Hasn't it been a long time?

It has been over two years since my last post - why did I stop? I'm not entirely sure, I guess that I found it less enjoyable and interesting than I used too and the 'passion' disappeared.

Nevertheless, I was reading some of my old posts for nostalgic purposes the other day and I kind of felt like getting back into it - if only for the fact that it is nice to write about what you have been doing so that you can reflect on it and also be able to look back on it later in life.

Actually, writing a blog is a very good example of how fallible and frai human memory can be as there are many previous posts I have written on this blog that I don't even remember writing! Not only that, but when you have an extended break from something like this and then look back on your previous thoughts and opinions you realise how much you can change, and how much you can learn during a short few years. As an example, I now feel slightly ashamed of the almost 'religious zeal' I displayed for the cult of 'Objectivism'. Here I was ranting and raving about the hypocrisy and faith shown by the religious and yet I was falling at the same time, hook line and sinker, for another cult. On this subject I can recommend an excellent essay by Michael Shermer. This, how can I say, 'slapped some sense into me' and made me realise how naive I was being.

Having said that, there are many views and ideas from Objectivism that I have sympathy for, indeed you could say that my economic views are still relatively 'right wing'. Nevertheless, Objectivism has taught me a valuable lesson that it is important to surround yourself with different opinions and ideas and not get caught up in one single ideology or dogmatically believe that everything one person says is true. I think this is especially so in modern society where we have become so specialised. How often to you find an expert in one field being questioned or interviewed about a subject they know very little about, and their opinions being treated as though they were the final word on the subject? Too often.

I have discovered 'Organised Skepticism' and for me it seems a super fit with my core values and a great way of getting involved with an active group of people who I believe are really doing something to improve the lot of humanity. I can thoroughly recommend the 'Skeptics Guide to the Universe' podcast for those interested in finding a little more about what skepticism is about. Not only is the podcast informative, interesting and topical it is downright entertaining - check it out.

On that note, I will turn in for the evening. I have much more to discuss about what I have been doing in the last two years, perhaps most notably my latest running exploits...