Yeah, I get it organized religion is a crock of shit. I agree. But science can become another dogma or atheism and often does. People love ideologies, makes them feel safe. In my experience people into this “scientific skepticism” tribe are the most dogmatic, close-minded people I have ever come across. They are not willing to question any of their assumptions and when you do, goodbye for life. Been there done that. And ready to talk if you are willing to open your mind a bit. I don’t want to be wrong for a second more than I have to due to ignorance.
But still Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, etc helped me think deeper and be more skeptical and critical. I think these three especially write quite beautifully. The books are good. Science is a great method when used correctly without all the corruption and politics that is often required to fund studies. But it’s problematic because most people are NOT scientists so they don’t have the ability to assess whether something is good science or bad science.
Some areas are very tricky to observe like consciousness because the observer is the observed simultaneously. Meditation is better to learn about the inner energies (hard to verify though). You get quiet and still enough, there is a lot of stuff going on. Maybe it’s all imaginary. Maybe everything is. I don’t know. Maybe some people know. Maybe we are all just someone’s eye or something. Like the earth and the whole universe and multivers is some stage of a zoom. In and out. You look far enough or in enough and it’s the same infinity mindfuckery. A giraffe is yawning and sick of the same old shit.