Happy New Year!

I have come to realise that New Year's Resolutions are nothing but an Illuminati plot to keep humanity feeling dispirited, downtrodden and defeated so that they may carry out their nefarious schemes with impunity.  I am on to their game (I know too much!  And now you do too!!) and I'm refusing to play along.  So this year, no resolutions that will only make me feel bad about myself later on.

Having said that, there is something I would like to work on a bit in the new year.  This piece by Tim Minchin will explain:



It may have been pointless to argue with Storm but it's not pointless to argue against woo.  I know because I've been on both sides of that table.  Once I was like Storm, I believed all kinds of weird and wonderful things that had no basis in reality and I believed them with all my heart.  But I don't anymore.  I've come a long way and I've learned a lot and now I'm starting to find myself on the other end of that conversation more and more.  The problem is that I'm not yet as ready as Mr Minchin here to lay out my argument in a simple and logical fashion at the drop of a hat.  I plan on changing that in the new year.

Obviously there is no point in moving from a fuzzy believer in magic to a fuzzy skeptic.  Either way you just end up sharing a dogmatic belief you cannot back up when backed into a corner.  It's far better to know exactly what you believe and why you believe it.  That way lies illumination - not some woo-woo mystical kind, but actual illumination, i.e seeing the world around you clearly.

This works better for me than some traditional New Year's Resolutions would.  I enjoy learning and skepticism and critical thinking is fun!  2012 can be a great time for me to get to know my Skeptic's Dictionary a whole lot better!  So I won't try to change or reinvent myself in the new year, instead I will just do the things I enjoy so I can organically grow into the version of myself I would like to be.

So may you, have a great and interesting 2012.  May your life be free from illusions and may you find all the truth you seek.  Say no to the Illuminati, embrace illumination!  Happy New Year!  (Unless you follow the Chinese or Hebrew calender in which case, happy January I guess)