What Does Critical Thinking Mean To You?

Yes, the most important criticism is self-criticism. It's easy to see the speck in somebody else's ideas - unless it's blocked by the beam in your own.

When you're in love, critical thinking is pretty much out the window anyway. There are some situations where critical thinking just isn't very useful.(That probably applies equally to falling in love with God.)

That is indeed sad, which prompts some of us to think critically about it. Would a God really create such a sad situation? Or maybe some humans just like to create sad situations and blame them on God.

We need to be critical of the method itself.

The definition of psychotic or the definition of belief?

You answered your own question: Consensus decides what is valid. Consensus is a requirement for objectivity (although consensus doesn't necessarily indicate objectivity). If there was any consensus about a delusion it wouldn't be a delusion.

I don't think anybody is seriously defining belief as a psychosis. There may well be a correlation between the two though.

Critical thinking is the exact opposite of kneejerk certainty. Critical thinking means deliberately deciding what every move of your knee should be - and after you've moved it wondering if you got it wrong.If you could ever admit that the Bible might be wrong, your knee might not jerk so much.

You ignored the other half of my post:

quote:

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If you could ever admit that the Bible might be wrong, your knee might not jerk so much.

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You're the one who clearly exhibits the kneejerk certainty. You're absolutely certain that you're right about everything.

Indeed, Treasure Island is the only evidence we have that Long John Silver ever existed. Otherwise, we'd think he was just an imaginary character.

What would be the difference (critically-thinking-wise) between imagining Long John Silver and imagining God?

So, critically-thinking-wise, how do you choose one "image" of God over the many others?

Doesn't critical thinking require you to get familiar with the other options before making a choice?

So, is it more important to accept something (anything?) than to make an intelligent, informed (critical) decision? Is it better to take a bad position than to take no position at all?

That's fine, as long as you're willing to unmake those decisions if they turn out to be bad ones. If you make a wrong turn, you can keep telling yourself, "It's just over the next hill," or you can admit you were wrong.It seems to me that religions put a lot of effort into making excuses for staying on the wrong road.