Tuesday, January 4, 2011

Dream: The followup

I had a dream... I don't quite remember it, but there was a skeptical podcast.  And the podcasters kept on bugging this evolution denier, and bugging and bugging.  "He still hasn't responded to our criticisms," they said.

Sheesh, why am I dreaming about these things?  I don't even listen to any podcasts anymore!  Let it be known that very few of my dreams are skeptically themed, it's just the ones that make it into my blog.

So I had an insight--in the dream--that this is what skepticism is all about.  It's about following up previous stories, reminding everyone that those beliefs are still wrong, and its supporters have still failed to produce any evidence.

But now that I'm awake, I'm questioning my in-dream insight.

Well, yes, writing about skepticism means writing about a lot of the same kinds of claims over and over again.  I don't know that this means that a single podcast has to single-handedly tackle the same perpetrator of the same claim over and over on the same issue.  That is one possible tactic, I suppose.  It'd probably get boring though, unless you're reaching new audiences with every repetition.  There are plenty of other skeptical voices out there to tackle the issue, and those voices are likely to offer fresher perspectives and reach different audiences.

For some reason, my dream-self didn't bother to think of any of this!  Try harder dream-self, try harder.

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