Introduction: An edited repeat of my front page greeting 
Hi. My name is Steven Reinhold. Welcome to Critical Thinking at Every Fork in the Road. 
I'm genuinely interested in thinking about life and dealing with it as it really seems to be through my natural senses. Being as open, honest and real as I am about what I find (or don't find) along the way takes a lot of guts and opens me up to all kinds of flack from pretenders and absolutists of all kinds, but it's a great adventure.
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I'm trying to take this journey out of the darkness without denying pain or candy-coating the negativity with a "positive-thinking" smoke-screen, without avoiding truth or claiming to know "THE truth". I also acknowledge and celebrate what I like, and I do all of this without trying to frame it all in some kind of mysterious, magical, supernatural or metaphysical explanation.
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This section is about some of my journey. Wherever you're at in yours, I invite you into mine. I also invite you to share yours with me and/or others as well.

 Other Introductory Thoughts... 

  Why did I create Every Fork in the Road dot org? 
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  What is on this website? 
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  What is NOT on this website? 
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  i'm Skeptical 
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  i'm Agnostic 
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  a NOTE 
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  What is Critical Thinking? 
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  my Opinion 
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  a Warning 
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  and a Disclaimer 

Why did I create Every Fork in the Road dot org?
EveryForkInTheRoad-dot-org is a place for me to share thoughts and stories and interact with others (through e-mail and hopefully a discussion board of some kind eventually) about various things including my long, sometimes hard, continuing Journey "Out of the Darkness of an Uncritical Mind". Wherever you're at in your Journey, I invite you into mine and I invite you to share yours with me and/or others as well. 

I have a great passion for learning and great compassion for people. I would some day like to put these two aspects of my life together in the form of teaching, either in classes or through writing books. These pages are not necessarily written for the purpose of telling others about my self. They really started as a journal of sorts for me to express my thoughts and work through them as I learn and grow and mature as a participant in life on planet Earth. However, if you want to get to know me (or at least know about what I think or how I think) a little better, reading this might help. 

This is kind of a brain-storm scratch-pad session. Though I do intend to write a book some day (when I'm more mature, wiser and have better communication skills than I do now) on subjects touched on here in these notes, this should  by no means be thought of as a finished publication. Nor should it be thought of as necessarily complete or in any particular order (though parts of it might be). At this point it is simply notes to my self which I am making available to others along the way. However, it should be considered original, copyrighted material (If I have neglected to properly document any quotes in these notes, I am sorry and I will quickly edit my pages to reflect the appropriate information if anything is ever brought to my attention). 
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What is on this website? 
Here you will find some of my observations, examinations and thoughts about my self and my life, other people, ideas, concepts, beliefs, religion, philosophy, science (especially in relation to Natural History) and the world in which we actually live. 

Though I may not always do so (and please confront me where you think I'm not), it is my intent to consider all of these things in the light of Love & Compassion, Honesty & Justice, Reason & Intellectual Integrity. 
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What is NOT on this website? 
You will not find an attempt to replace one belief system with another (since I have none as you'll discover if you read very far), but an attempt to consider any and all belief systems and/or world views with a genuinely open mind and with the skill so foreign to me for the first twenty-some years of my life and which I'm not sure how I lived with so little of for so long, Critical Thinking. 

You will not find any philosophical pontificating (as if I think I've got the right stuff). 
You will not find any political hype (I don't think so anyway...let me know if you think you find some). 
You will not find any religious manipulation (this I know for sure). 

You will find factual, scientific information and also my opinion about all kinds of things, but hopefully, you will not find an attitude in me that leads you to believe any of it. It is my intent to share things that I learn with others, but not to claim that my opinions about things are somehow "the Truth". I am not convinced (one way or the other) that there either is or is not such a thing as an absolute truth of any kind, anywhere. These are my opinions and that's it. 

It is up to the reader to do critical thinking. If someone is confused by the presentation of facts, that's their problem. I'm not going to make it mine by refusing to acknowledge reality and pretending not to see it when it's right before my eyes. 
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i'm Skeptical.... 
As a skeptic (not to be confused with Cynic), I use critical thinking when considering things, everything. It's not just something I do with regard to some things and not others as in "Oh he's very skeptical about such and such". My general approach to considering everything is skeptical (not to be confused with Cynical), which simply means that I look for and only make conclusions based on empirical evidence. It doesn't mean that I never make conclusions, but just that I will make no conclusions without adequate substantiation. If I don't know for sure, instead of pretending that I do (for whatever reason), I'll acknowledge that I don't and deal with things from that perspective. 
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i'm Agnostic...
When it comes to the area of "unknowable things" (God, the Force or any other kind of magical, supernatural or metaphysical beings, places or things), I'm agnostic. This doesn't mean that I'm necessarily against every detail of all claims about unknowable things, but just that I'm not for them either. For instance, the only thing I know for sure about concepts like "God" is that they come from stories passed down through the ages from human to human, generation to generation. I'm not going to conclude that something (or Someone in the case of "God") either does or doesn't exist without adequate empirical evidence one way or the other. 
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NOTE: I may add to or delete from these notes at any time and at any frequency. So, if it seems at all disconnected or like a bunch of pointless ramblings, it may be because that's pretty close to what it is at this point.  However, as much as I can tend to ramble sometimes (please interrupt me if it bothers you), I don't actually see these ramblings as "pointless" as much as I see them perhaps a bit disconnected and maybe still a bit rough around the edges. 
    Just to show my hand and let you know where I'm at... I have had no formal education beyond graduating from 12th grade in the Minnesota public school system as of yet (I've never enrolled in or participated in any classes in college or university as of 20030803) so I do not yet have any recognizable degree in any field of study (science what-so-ever). I'm not professional (getting paid for) at anything other than desktop computer, server and network support (the kind of work I do for the University of Colorado at Boulder). While accredited educational credentials are not the only valid means of establishing expertise, and even though I have a lot to offer in a wide variety of areas relevant to the study of psychology, sociology, anthropology, evolutionary biology and Natural History in general, I do not claim expert status in anything other than thinking and talking about my own experiences in life. As far as everything else, I can only claim to be a human being who can make observations and think. 
    (the previous two paragraphs modified 20030803_1850)
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What is Critical Thinking? 
The best way I can say how to get an understanding of what Critical Thinking is, is to go to this page and check out some of the links. However, I can offer these thoughts for starters...
Critical Thinking is not necessarily a 'world view' in and of it self. In fact, it is an activity that can be participated in by all kinds of people with various and even quite contrary world views. 
Critical Thinking does not take a position on issues, but is rather an unbiased, reasoned, scientific approach to considering them. Critical thinking is a tool that helps me on my journey to increase, mature and expand my awareness of knowable reality and become more open, honest and real about my self and the world in which I actually live. 
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My opinion about Critical Thinking.... 
It seems healthier to me to think carefully and systematically with reason and intelligence than not to (this is basically what Critical Thinking is). However, critical thinking it self is not about pushing any one particular opinion and even though it (critical thinking) is better in my opinion (than not critical thinking), this web site is not about advocating belief in critical thinking above, over or instead of other uses of our brains either. In fact, it is not about believing anything at all. It is just simply about thinking, and about some of what results when done by me. So, please, don't believe a word I say. However, please do think about it critically and genuinely consider whatever you read on this web site. Thanks. 
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WARNING: Jumping to conclusions about what you read in here may lead to undesired results. If you have questions about anything I have to say in here, please read the entire section and/or ask me clarifying questions (vie e-mail only at this point). 
    I don't want my honest inquiry into the things of this life to be mistaken for an arrogant push to convince others to adopt a different belief system. I have no belief system for you to adopt anyway. I do have a worldview of sorts. I examine it regularly to evaluate its validity in light of reality, and I'm simply inviting others to do the same with their own. 
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DISCLAIMER: While it is not my intent to pick on anyone or to cut people down in any kind of way, it is my intent to expose various thoughts, ideas, concepts, "beliefs" and claims to the light of critical thinking and to conduct a rigorous intellectual examination of anything that exists in the arena of the mind. It is my intent to be very kind and gentle with persons, but I consider every thought to be fair game for the onslaught of critical thinking. Whereas your opinions may not always be safe here, you, the person, most certainly should be.
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