Running On The Right Fuel

I am not one for political correctness. I'm one of those who prefers to speak plainly, and learn if I'm incorrect about something so I can correct my thinking. I don't like it when it certain subject's are off limits, when the potato is deemed too hot. So what if we offend each other? Who cares if the occasional nose gets put out of joint? We're big boy's and girls aren't we? We'll recover. For example, I happen to think Christianity is a tedious waste of time which is practiced by people who haven't stood back and stepped outside their assumptions. I think Islam has an undercurrent of pernicious teaching that happily most Muslims ignore. I think travellers cause a disproportionate amount of crime compared to the numbers of them. And despite having all the respect in the world for single parents I maintain that a mother and a father offer the best frame work for raising kids, assuming the aforementioned parents are loving and committed and not otherwise screwed up. All the above mean I fall foul of the PC brigade, and this to me is bizarre. Tough subjects need to be discussed, chewed over. Horns need to be locked, rough edges in our thinking ground away. I'll sit down with any Christian, Muslim, single parent or traveller and listen to what they have to say. And I have the kind of mindset that changes when the facts change. That's the kind of man I want to be. I want it so much it hurts. As many of you know I was a Christian for over a decade. I learned many important things and met some of the best people I'll ever meet. But when it became obvious that the basic teachings were fabrications I had to act. I couldn't knowingly live a life when there's such overwhelming evidence that the whole thing was backward engineered, redacted, and cut and pasted from all manner of sources. So I left the fold. I followed the evidence. And to this day I am obsessive about ensuring that my opinions match reality, that my worldview is evidence based and driven by a voracious desire to get to the truth. It startles and saddens me how few people actually do this. It's a mystery I cannot apprehend. The other day I happened across a quote which said something along the following lines; "Knowledge isn't about knowing everything. It's about questioning everything you think you know." I adore this quote. This is my entire worldview bottled and distilled into one handy statement. So please forgive me if I struggle to understand people who don't think this way. Sorry if I remain puzzled by people who appear to actively seek to delude themselves. I am convinced that I am wrong about a great many things. And I'm equally sure that I've so much left to learn, and that the opinions I hold today will not be exactly the same in the future. Above all, please don't think that I'm a man that doesn't know his own mind. I know it just fine, thanks. I'm just keen to ensure I'm running it on the very best fuel.