What is Skeptic's Play?

What does the title mean?

Skepticism is a method of thought based on the scientific method (described more fully here). It involves thinking critically, and questioning all things. I take the values of skepticism to heart, making me a skeptic.

Honestly, I didn't put too much thought into the title. I guess the title is there to remind us that most of what I say isn't really that important. I tend to avoid the standard skeptical topics (ie alternative medicine, conspiracy theories, ID/creationism), and talk about things that are only tangentially related to skepticism. Most of those standard topics have already been covered better than I could ever do, so instead I talk about fun stuff. I probably have a distorted concept of fun.

I feel the following quote captures my meaning:

The widespread distrust of intellectuals in America reflects a tendency to depreciate their playfulness and distrust their piety. Ours is a society in which every form of play seems to be accepted by the majority except the play of the mind.

-Richard Hofstadter

What's it about?

1. Critical thinking: Typically, skepticism focuses its criticism on pseudoscience, but really, skeptics try to think critically about everything. This is a catch-all category that includes critiques on anything and everything, as well as in-depth commentary on how science and skepticism work.
   
   
2. Science and math, especially physics: I try to summarize scientific and mathematical concepts for the layman. I think everyone can have a basic understanding of science if we try.
   
   
3. Puzzles: I will occasionally offer free-form puzzles to be solved by you, the readers. Even if you can't solve it, feel free to team up with the other commenters.
   
   
4. Atheism: Most self-identified skeptics also happen to be atheists, as am I. This topic is a large playground in which we can apply critical-thinking and get fascinating results. What's up with religion, the atheist movement, and the beliefs on either side? I tend to be very friendly about this, so no worries!

Because I obsess over this stuff, I have a separate post with further category divisions.

There is no set update schedule, but I try to shoot for 2-4 posts a week.

Who am I?

In real life, I'm just a mostly normal guy who studies physics as an undergraduate at UCLA. I am the president of BASS, UCLA's skeptic and secularist group. I am also asexual. I don't talk about it all the time, on account of having interests outside of my lack of sexual attraction, but there's an interesting bit of subtext for you.

I don't feel my life is so interesting that I need to reveal anything else, though I do talk about myself occasionally.

Leave some comments!

Is my writing unclear? Ask a question!
Have further commentary on my writings? Discuss!
Do you disagree with me? That's good! Tell us about it!
Off-topic comments and simple chatting are also welcome, but don't push it too far.

That said, certain kinds of comments are unappreciated, and may be deleted at my own discretion. This includes comments that even appear to be spam or sockpuppetry, and anything that I judge to be plain incomprehensible.

I also have an e-mail address. It is skepticsplay a-t gmail d-o-t com. I reserve the right to publish any e-mail correspondence unless you explicitly forbid it. I prefer that discussion remain in the comments, but I understand the need for private communications.

Note: While this page appears to be dated back to 2007, I've since edited it from time to time so that it is always up to date.