I naturally believe my opinions reflect reality, otherwise they wouldn't be my opinions. I do worry a lot of the time that I'm wrong, or that my views are due to a lack of life experience. I want to try to disprove all my opinions before I accept them fully. What would be a good way of doing this? Travel?

Obviously, many of my views are of a political or religious nature, so are not fit for discussion here. I'd just like to know how I'd go about putting them to the test.

My method is usually to go about searching for other people's alternative opinions on the subject. Once I find one that holds any degree of merit, I stop and consider it. I typically have an internal debate in my head where I argue each side of the argument to try to find which one is the most logical, rational, and holds the most basis in reality.

Likewise, having actual debates with other people helps a lot too, provided the other person is willing to have a friendly debate and is somewhat capable of defending his or her position.

The problem is the majority of those who hold views that oppose mine often hold those opinions for reasons like tradition for its own sake, or they hold them for personal reasons not grounded in logic or reason, but prejudice and/or faith. I wouldn't say that invalidates their opinion, but it means they are not very suited for making a strong case for their beliefs.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, when I debate people with views most unlike my own, I spend the majority of my time bringing them up to speed with scientific consensus and citing studies. Most of these exchanges are very one sided and I've very rarely heard a compelling argument from their side.

I still can't shake the feeling that I'm missing something fundamental, I sometimes think I'm so far up the ivory tower that I have my head in the clouds. I'm looking for a reality check but don't know where to look

Well honestly, if you find the opposing side of the argument is comprised of people who are not familiar with your side of the argument, have no compelling argument to defend themselves with, and rely almost entirely or completely on prejudice and/or faith, then I'd say you're good to go with your opinions.

But it's very healthy to doubt yourself about things like this, as you know you're remaining open-minded about the subject. But sometimes people just have no good reason for believing what they do. That's just how it is, and you might be having so much trouble finding someone with a good argument because a good argument does not exist. But I think it's important to remain open-minded about the subject and keep an eye out for a worthy opponent. Someone here on the forums might be interested in having a debate with you in private messages or something. I would myself, but I think our views are in agreement if I'm reading between the lines correctly.

Other than that, you might just try searching for the specific topic you're looking for in Google and going from there. I understand your dilemma though. But, again, the fact that it's so difficult to find a really good counter-argument might just be because there just isn't one.

Search for the foundations of your opinions. If you believe something, ask yourself why - on what presumptions does that belief rest. Keep going down until you hit the bottom. Then consider alternative beliefs to that. The majority of people don't spend much time questioning their beliefs, so just debating your opinions with whoever you happen to meet will probably end up getting repetitive.

When you do discuss your beliefs with other people, think about what your goal is in doing so. It sounds like you're treating it as if your goal is to convince them that you're right. How often does that actually work? Even if you get them to back down from the argument, do you think you've really changed their mind? If you want to expand your mind to new possibilities, maybe you should try a different tack; instead of debating with people, and schooling them in yourbeliefs - which it sounds like is what you're doing - you should just listen to theirs. If they have an opinion that differs from yours, maybe your response should be "tell me about that - why?" rather than "ah, but did you know, studies have shown, etc etc..."

Faith in science is still faith.

I don't believe much of this critique applies, because I do take the time to make sure I understand the entirety of their position.

I abhor debates, as it happens. I much prefer discussions. It's just when people post ignorant drivel like 'People on the autistic spectrum just need to get out and socialise' I feel compelled to show them it isn't so.

I try my best to trace the origin of each of my beliefs, and I believe I do so with rigour. It is just I think I have come to a point when my beliefs have passed my internal critical thinking processes and I feel I could gain a lot from an outside perspective on said beliefs.

I don't feel as though I enter debates to prove my knowledge (or lack thereof as the case may be) but I enter thinking I'm getting into a discussion, and I end up 'schooling', as you put it, people who write unsubstantiated nonsense and outmoded 'common sense' myths. Another example might be someone arguing over mental health legislation who does not know the difference between a psychotic and a psychopath.

I do appreciate value where I see it- for example, eastern philosophy holds lots of valuable information which is overlooked by many sceptics, I value many teachings in Buddhism despite not believing in reincarnation or karma as a moral arbiter.

I have no faith in science, I entertain ideas, process them critically, and then decide whether they are congruent with observable reality.

If you can find examples of me taking things on faith, or displaying any less rigour for beliefs that I'd like to believe, please show them. It's the reason I created the thread.