Is it Ever Good to Set Aside Skepticism?

Añadido: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]So, hey everybody and welcome back. So, those of you who watch me regularly probably notice that I was more or less off the radar last week. I'm generally pretty active on this extracurricular channel on a weekly basis. And last week, I did pretty much nothing. And I just wasn't active at all with YouTube stuff at all, including preparing for videos for my bigger channel. Um, reasons for that are varied and things I don't want to go into in too much detail here, but sometimes when you're a content creator, uh, you just don't have it in you. And that last week was one of those weeks. I've had that happen a couple times, and I just uh I didn't have it in me to get up and do that. So, I had a little bit of a break. That's one reason I switched things up for my very demanding original profit as odd schedule. Sometimes you just have to or just want to do this. And that was me last week. I'm sure you all understand.

[00:00:52]And most comments when I say things like this are telling me, "Yeah, do what you need to do. We'll wait for stuff to watch."

[00:00:58]Um, but I'm get I'm getting back into the swing of things now. And um, I just wanted to talk about something today that's a bit different. It's maybe a little bit of a shift from my usual perspective on things. being very much a naturalist, liking to see things from a scientific perspective and cut through a lot of, you know, metaphysical, superstitious, what you might, if you're not being diplomatic, call nonsense. Um, [snorts] and also I just want to kind of talk from the heart maybe would be a corny way of putting it. Just just share a personal perspective I have. Uh, get a little bit more get a little bit more personal with you than I do usually.

[00:01:40]Um, and that might mean number one that I'm just going to let this go and just talk without a lot of editing. It might also mean that I say some things that seem a little bit Captain Obviousish.

[00:01:52]Uh, maybe these are things most of you already know or some of you might disagree with it, but I just I you know, I've had kind of a uh firsthand point perspective or insight into these things. And so I just kind of wanted to share where I'm coming from with that.

[00:02:10]And that is, you know, I've had a few people, some recent, some not so much so over time, share things about uh death with me and experiencing the death of people that they've known.

[00:02:31]And it kind of takes you into some interesting territory as an atheist.

[00:02:37]Interesting is a very crass word for it, I guess, but it gives you some things to think about, especially in how you approach things from a spiritual or a soul-based perspective, I guess, and how you interface with other people when they bring that to you. Now, on a literal level, obviously as atheists, we generally don't think that there's an afterlife. I know that atheism is just a stance on the question of God, but usually most questions of the supernatural kind of fall by the wayside on that or for the most part, we take a naturalistic naturalistic stance on that. And I'm one of those people. Uh but that puts you in kind of a strange position with other people sometimes where I think we need to tread carefully and there's an obvious aspect to this. So to get to get down to the point a lot of times and I'm not going to share details that will get anywhere near uh you know passing on somebody's personal story because I have not gotten permission to do that from anybody. So, I'm just going to talk in generalities that are so broad that it it won't even approach relaying what people have told me. Um, but often when sharing experiences of dealing with death and loss and grief, people will default to some [clears throat] some version of the story that includes supernatural sounding elements. Uh, something that is meaningful to the person but maybe not entirely true. And these aren't always going to be highly religious people, but something about experiencing death and coming face to face with it uh tends to bring tends to bring up something something spiritual in us. And I think there are are some good reasons for that. So when people when people have told me about the death of somebody who may or may not have been close to them to varying degrees, sometimes people are surprised by how much a death impacts them. I notice a a lot of times people relay to me something about how they had ahead of time experienced something that hinted that a loss was going to happen.

[00:04:57]That they had um visualized or experienced something of a presence when they had no reason to to have that feeling. and that that was maybe a little bit of a premonition or that they have a feeling of connection to that person still uh is you know a general feeling maybe that the person is looking down from them or that they can still in some way sense a level of communication with them. Now, as a naturalist, I I don't generally find those stories or or those kinds of uh claims as a bad word for it. When pe but when people share that with me, obviously from my perspective on the world and how things work, I'm not going to think that is literally true.

[00:05:53]But obviously that's that's not something you just tell somebody when they're sharing with you, right? So there's there are different levels to this.

[00:06:02]Uh one of them is that you just be diplomatic and basically human with people. I think we know that you don't you don't well actually somebody when they're when they're telling you that they experience something that has a spiritual element to it. and that that that seems a little bit superstitious. You don't correct them on that. Obviously, um that's just that's just kind of part of being a decent human and not being an edgy teenage fedora tipping atheist. You don't need to correct everybody all the time.

[00:06:44]But I think I think there's another element to that which is that there are there are a couple different layers to these stories. Now there is one where I can see how when these stories are meaningful to people, there is still a a a scientific reality to it, right? or a a level where if you really break it down, what that person experience is experiencing is real on an emotional level but can be understood as natural phenomena. So a lot of times if we if we experience something before somebody passes and then they pass and it feels unexpected, obviously maybe there's a certain amount of selection bias there.

[00:07:33]Um, if you if you feel a presence somehow near you and that accompanies the death of somebody, whether before, shortly after, or whatever, um, that's probably your intuition telling you something.

[00:07:51]Your mind's making connections.

[00:07:54]And obviously it's it's not literally that person in my in my p point of view, but it's it's still is it's your mind processing I guess when you feel a connection with somebody if you feel like you're still inter in your mind like almost as if a psychic connection you're you're still communicating with that person and you feel some sense of who they are or some assurance for them or some feeling like they're looking at do um that that probably is is very real and something you have to process in your mind. Obviously, I don't think that person is telepathically communicating to you from heaven or whatever.

[00:08:40]But I think one aspect of this is this is all while not literally true, it is still very deeply human and it is very deeply important.

[00:08:55]And I think one thing that kind of helps me understand this is that a lot of the meaning we make about people around us and what we experience with other people and just the sense of connection happens in our mind. the actual sensory input we have when we're viewing another person and when we sit with them and talk to them and make connections that when you really when you really look at the the literal reality of what that is, it's fairly limited. But a lot of what happens when when we're around other people as social creatures and what makes that real and important to us is what we process in our own heads. And sometimes you can make meaning that isn't literally true. You can, you know, one person can have more of a sense of connection than another person.

[00:09:50]Different relationships can mean different things to different people.

[00:09:53]You can overblow it and that that that can lead to some turmoil in life or some emotional stresses.

[00:10:00]But the thing is it it it is an internal mental and emotional process that you go through any sense of connection with other people. And if it can be overblown when a person exists or if if it is an internal thought process, if it is meaning making in your own mind, I think it is normal for that to continue when a person dies. And I think that's why sometimes we experience those things and those strong feelings. Uh it is why sometimes this is one thing I've experienced and one thing people have shared with me.

[00:10:36]Sometimes the death of somebody who you wouldn't expect to really impact you hits you harder than the death of somebody who maybe you were more closely closer to and at that time didn't grab you as much as you would think by comparison. Uh it's just a lot of it's a lot of what makes us human. And at that moment of death, we're just we're faced with things we're not entirely prepared for. And so I guess what I'm trying to get at in a roundabout way is aside from being polite with people and just not bringing up the literal, you know, what we think the literal scientific reality of these events are and try to break down what actually what we think actually happened and correct the people on the spot, which I think would be just kind of a shitty thing to do. And more than that, I just don't think it's super useful.

[00:11:32]I think people like to say there are things we can't entirely understand.

[00:11:37]And one one problem is that when it comes to literal organized religion or especially fundamentalism, uh people try to people tell you there are things you can't understand and then they expound upon how they understand it. So apparently you you can understand that.

[00:11:55]We know that you just take shortcuts toward uh defining and codifying the supernatural.

[00:12:01]But when it comes to a moment of death or grief in general, I think I think that that [laughter] that gets to something that we actually don't understand to a point where our minds are almost shortcircuited trying to process that. And a lot of these feelings and phenomena are just your your mind trying to make sense of that. And so I think like I'd said before, there's something real in your intuition happening there. Uh there's a sense of there's a sense of who that person was still lingering in your mind when the actual person is gone. A lot of that meaning making that your mind had been doing while the person was there is still happening. And so I think when when you when you sense those things, there's something real happening in your head. And when you express them in ways that sound supernatural, I think you're just trying to convey that in language that might be a little bit metaphorical and indirect. It might be an imprecise way of summing up your intuition.

[00:13:07]But while you're not getting to the core necessarily of parsing out what's actually happening in your mind, if you're not identifying that maybe this is just my intuition making connections or that I'm being a little selective in, you know, what I remember and what I don't, th those kinds of things, is that really important? And when a person is in that kind of emotional state of mind where they're processing that, is there anything important or constructive, not only in being untactful with them and blurting out things that are just hurtful to be perfectly frank, but does it even really help them to try to make those make to literally sum up what you think is happening? Or at that time, is it just okay to sit with a slightly metaphorical in the intuitive and to just let that let that meaning making be what it is.

[00:14:08]I think I think sometimes that is just the better thing to do. And some I don't I don't think as humans were necessarily built to fully parse out the physical reality and the literal nature of what we're going through.

[00:14:26]um at certain times, especially when somebody close to us dies, that's just not what our brains are built to do. And so when somebody's faced with that, I think it's good obviously not to not to try to correct them, but sometimes it's good just to not allow them their place of being wrong for the sake of being diplomatic, but to understand that what they're that there is an actual reality in what they're experiencing and that letting that just be what it is and play out in their minds and let their minds wind down and come to grips with a sense of loss and maybe let those let the meaning making and the connection just play out in its natural way might be might be good to some extent. I don't know exactly that there is a place where obviously taking mental shortcuts and believing incorrect things can stop us from processing grief accurately or constructively. I know that and there are also ways where the super believing in the supernatural and taking mental shortcuts can lead to problems. But I think a lot of those problems are when you start to codify that and take it as absolutely literal, especially to the point of telling other people how to live their lives. And that becomes something closer to fundamentalist religion. when it's just when people have some at least intuitive sense and I think this is the case when they tell these stories or when they process loss this way I think they kind of at least intuitively understand that what they're going through is personal and are not looking to expand that into ideas about how other people should live their lives and if that starts to happen that can become a different conversation but when when they're when they're processing things in ways that I think they're their brain is just built to do.

[00:16:27]I think it's good for us to try to not only respect that on a social level, but just understand that. And you know, I to me personally, breaking down what's actually happening in those events on a literal level, that helps me understand myself and it helps me understand them. And in a way, I feel like I'm more prepared to uh I'm more prepared to talk people through things like that or just be a better listener if I in the back of my mind, even though I don't express it, what's actually happening is kind of running back there and I I understand the mechanics of it, but parsing out the mechanics of it is not verbally to that person is not necessarily, I think, the best thing to do at that time. And so, I don't know. I it's hard it's hard to know what I'm trying to get at here exactly in terms of a conclusion other than maybe what I've said. This is just this is just me kind of expounding on my personal thoughts in a totally unscripted way to be honest and I don't know really how to tie it together without probably repeating myself. But I think I've been I've gone through my hardcore atheist phase where I think I picked more fights than I needed to with people who are spiritual spiritual or religious about some of these literal conclusions. Never never in a time of grief or anything like that.

[00:17:56]But especially when we've taken a turn toward Christian nationalism and authoritarianism, there are people you don't need to pick fights with. And there are people you can find some kind of shared value with and maybe alliances with even though their question on the spiritual might be different than yours as long as their core values are the same. I've always thought that how you act toward people is a lot more important than factual conclusions about the existence of God or anything paranormal. And this I think is just a really prime example of that. So, if I were to come to a well, first off, I've I've I've softened on that a little bit, and this is one example of that.

[00:18:37]You know, I'm I'm never going to just get to the point where I internally acknowledge that maybe there's a ghost drifting by somebody or um you know, somebody somebody is reaching out to you mentally from heaven or whatever. I just I don't think those are probably true.

[00:18:57]But I think there's a truth in there that I can let my mind rest on a sense of ambiguity that my personal assessment of what's probably happening is not really that important. And there's some there's there's some truth at work there that it's just worth letting be. And we really don't know in the end uh what's what's happening. I'm I'm I'm probably getting close to sounding like I'm trying to be ambiguous about the literal nature of the spiritual and that's not really where I'm going, but I I think you get where I'm get where I'm coming from. Uh this is just kind of where being human intersects awkwardly with uh being being factually correct and while actualing people. And so I guess if I were to come to a conclusion, it's just maybe try to be a little more understanding about that kind of thing.

[00:19:53]um not just in these situations. These are very specific niche niche events that you won't run into often. I find that people because I'm an atheist some reason like to talk to me about stuff like this and just general religion because when they come to an odd place, there's freedom in knowing that you're not coming at them with a specific agenda as long as you're not, you know, a shitty atheist.

[00:20:19]So maybe I hear this more often than other people do, but ju just in general when people express themselves to you, maybe be a little more a a little more I don't know, make a little more allowance for the fact that there's something going on in people's head that uh spiritual language is summing up and that is important to people and that we're never going to win that battle of correcting them on, you know, what exactly is literally happening. and maybe it's not a good battle to try to win anyway. So, I don't know. Just some thoughts. I rambled a bit here. Uh hopefully this is useful to some some of you. I don't think that this will probably get a ton of views. I'm not talking about anything super controversial except to the extent that it'll maybe piss some of my audience off if they like being more correct about this and think I'm compromising on questions of the spiritual. But it is what it is. Uh, I'll probably be processing this for a while and this is just some of my some of my thoughts on that. So, uh, take it for what it is and and have a good day everybody.