What Does Critical Thinking Mean To You?

Perv.

I've enjoyed every post (well most) in this thread. Many of them are subtle and closely reasoned; I respect the hell out of that, truly. But for me, the issue is simpler and older.So I was a little monkey once, cute as the dickens ("You little devil," my mama would cry), and I remember that I could wail in distress when near my bigger cousin and mama would come and bite his ears, despite his hoots of innocence.That was cool.And I remember that everyone would pretend that only Big Bubba could hug the girls, but when he wasn't looking, they'd slip away with the Sneaky Huggers into the bush, and hush their cries with their soft furry hands.Some of the guys would gather above the plain when the storms came. They'd watch the lightning, shake at the thunder: they all knew something different about what it meant. Some of them thought the thunder approvingly echoed baby monkey heads bashed against trees; some of them thought the thunder disapproved of bashing baby monkey heads.I thought it was loud.So, now many lost hairs later, I consider other monkeys' hoots a used car they want to sell. If it's so good, why do they want to sell it? Why does it need any selling at all? When a monkey puts forth the proposition that you can petition the lord in prayer, resulting in a used car that runs forever, I remember wailing my big cousin into a biting, and the baby monkeys and the storms, and I walk around the car and kick the tires because I know there's something wrong with it because there's something wrong with everything monkey.Am I buying this car to cruise with just for fun and see how far it goes? Okay, I don't have to look too hard--I'll just drive it till it craps out and walk away laughing. But if I'm gonna drive this car to monkey business every day, if I have to trust it like I trust a 6" thick liana, then I wanna make sure some dirty monkey didn't put sawdust in the tranny; I wanna look at the odometer cable for tool marks; I wanna listen to the radio presets: what kinda tune suited the way that monkey treated this car? What color is the oil on the stick?There are are a lot of monkeys selling a lot of used cars. There's something wrong with all of them. That's okay--there's something wrong with every car.But I'm not buying the one where I hear muffled hoots in the bushes.That's how this skeptical monkey approaches critical reasoning:I'm 'spicious. And critical.Edited by Omnivorous, : And it's my native language...