Do you guys actually believe this stuff?

[Account1]

Yes, indeed I did, several years ago. Hence my admittance of thinking in terms of escapism in the post you quoted from. Attempting to claim someone presently doesn't use logical thinking because they briefly thought illogically in the past is an extremely facile argument. I could do the same for you by pointing out you believed in the tooth fairy as a child (or something like that). People grow and change, contrary to popular belief.

When I saw the date of the threads in question I went to change my post but my connection kept timing out. Sorry. For the record though I never believed in the tooth fairy or santa claus or things like that and it's not a very good analogy since the rate of growth as a child is drastically more intense than a few years in the 20's.

My strong belief/assumption was that anyone who believed in such nonsensical bullshit could not think scientifically, which I have now found is not the case. I basically subconsciously stopped listening when anyone started talking about spirituality. I also believed I was logically flaying my opponent when I bothered debating them on the subject even though I wasn't actually seriously entertaining their worldview.

We do not think alike at all. I have seriously entertained this worldview, I read the five books (as well as a bunch of other new age stuff) and held it in consideration and found that it didn't hold up. I do not think it's nonsensical bullshit, I think it's archaic and irresponsible to hold in this day and age. Like I said earlier I can't just dismiss something if it makes such extraordinary claims without investigation. I'm not here to display a sense of superior thought, I'm not some kid who learned some fallacies in phi101 and now thinks he's a logician lol, if you're going to try and dismiss me on the grounds that I am like the caricature you have carved out for me there is nothing to be gained here for either of us.

For the record, my mother and maternal grandmother are atheists and my dad just didn't care or talk about it growing up. So I was not rebelling against them and they let me come to my own conclusions. I also did not get into this type of thing until I was 25ish (not very youthful) and do not resonate with any of the 'new age guru' types.

The generalization I made about skeptics was an observation from people I know personally. I was not talking about you.