Untested assumptions and lazy habits of thought can be shown up, once put in a spotlight of a different hue.

Perhaps the biggest myth about cynicism is that it deepens with age. I think what really happens is that experience painfully rips away layers of scales from our eyes, and so we do indeed become more cynical about many of the things we naively accepted when younger.

As a teenager, I increasingly had questions about religion to which I found no good answers.

The very act of questioning whether you exist proves you do, because you must be there for the doubt to be entertained in the first place.

The mark of a mature, psychologically healthy mind is indeed the ability to live with uncertainty and ambiguity, but only as much as there really is. Uncertainty is no virtue when the facts are clear, and ambiguity is mere obfuscation when more precise terms are applicable.

If you believe you are right, then you should believe that you can make the case that you're right. This requires you to deal with serious objections properly.

The idea that there is a sharp boundary between our true, inner selves and the outside world is pervasive, but highly questionable. The boundaries of the self might well be more porous than we ordinarily think.