|
|
Post by Grand Lunar on Jan 8, 2009 8:28:16 GMT -4
It's exasperating to be a skeptic, and yet live in a household where skepticism is rare.
The rest of my family seems to be rather taken in with programs like "A Haunting" and "Ghost Hunters".
As I watch, I can only shake my head at the situations.
"A Haunting" really gets me. The people in the stories would fit right at home in the 12th century.
Give me Penn & Teller, and James Randi any day.
|
|
|
|
Post by BertL on Jan 8, 2009 8:52:02 GMT -4
I agree with you. Uri Geller and Char have their own TV shows on Dutch television. A lot of people (including some of my family) seem to be really taken in by this. That saddens me.
|
|
|
|
Post by dwight on Jan 8, 2009 11:24:10 GMT -4
I caught a program here in Germany which dealt with ghost investigations. I was about to shake my head in dispair, when they showed the team. It turns out the German Ghosthunters have a skeptic in their ranks who quickly tells them what logical real-world explanations can explain what they are seeing. I found that absolutely refreshing. The hunters were evening taliking about how good it is having the guy with them.
|
|
|
|
Post by echnaton on Jan 8, 2009 11:31:25 GMT -4
Skeptics kind of spoil the fun for believers. How long do you think that show will last?
|
|
|
|
Post by Grand Lunar on Jan 9, 2009 7:48:18 GMT -4
I wonder if that has any influence on why "The Skeptologists" hasn't hit the air yet.
|
|
|
|
Post by PhantomWolf on Jan 9, 2009 16:59:16 GMT -4
I have to say I'm very much in several minds about ghosts. My logical part says, there is no evidence and most of the sightings have a rational explaination. The regilious part of me says that Angellic beings can appear in forms that may explain those sightings we can't explain rationally, but I know I have no evidence to hold this, except for the final part of me that believes there is something to ghosts because people I know very well, including my gf, have seen them and short of them lying to me, something they have no reason to do, there is no natural or rational explanation for what they saw.
|
|
|
|
Post by Nowhere Man on Jan 9, 2009 20:02:51 GMT -4
What if they are just plain mistaken? Through no malice of their own, they are reporting as true something that is false?
Fred
|
|
Al Johnston
"Cheer up!" they said, "It could be worse!" So I did, and it was.
Posts: 1,453
|
Post by Al Johnston on Jan 10, 2009 10:10:45 GMT -4
I think this story was from Peter Jones, the biologist, but I may be mistaken. In one of his books he describes vividly how he found himself running for his life from a polar bear, absolutely convinced that at any second he would be caught and torn apart. When this hadn't happened for an improbably long time, he risked a look over his shoulder, and realised he had been fleeing a shadow on the ice.
The brain plays a much bigger role in the seeing process than we generally give it credit for...
|
|
|
|
Post by PhantomWolf on Jan 10, 2009 17:31:00 GMT -4
The main two that stand out to me, one was see by multiple people, the other was seen multiple times, so I doubt that they were tricks of the light or halucinations.
|
|
Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
|
Post by Jason on Jan 10, 2009 18:33:36 GMT -4
My great-grandfather, who was a deaf-mute, was at the church meeting where my uncle had returned from his LDS mission in South America. He had my grandfather translating my uncle's speech for him by signing for him. Yet half-way through my uncle's speech, he told my grandfather to stop signing for him. He said he could see my deceased great-grandmother (also a deaf-mute in life) on the podium signing for him. For the rest of the meeting he watched her instead of my grandfather.
|
|
|
|
Post by Grand Lunar on Jan 12, 2009 16:05:39 GMT -4
That says most of it, Al.
Indeed, the mind also plays a big part in what we hear, too, as well as how we interpret the meanings of what we see and hear.
People on the shows I mention can see vague figures and hear sounds and think them as evidence of spirits hanging around the house.
The real skeptics see it, and realize it's reflections in one's glasses (I've expereinced this; seeing shapes, but knowing that it's reflections in my glasses), and sounds from the natural enviroment.
|
|
raven
Jupiter
That ain't Earth, kiddies.
Posts: 509
|
Post by raven on Jan 12, 2009 19:13:04 GMT -4
I am not saying ghost sightings in general are real but. . .
What if we just don't know enough yet to explain it?
In the mid-late 19th century, the very concept of splitting the atom was pure fantasy. The very word atom meant, 'indivisible'. Rather then dismiss the idea off hand, we should look at the evidence, and then decide. It is just possible, that sometimes, somewhere, somehow, people are really seeing something that present science can not explain.
|
|
|
|
Post by Data Cable on Jan 12, 2009 22:27:39 GMT -4
Rather then dismiss the idea off hand, we should look at the evidence, and then decide. It is just possible, that sometimes, somewhere, somehow, people are really seeing something that present science can not explain. And every time (that I'm aware of) the evidence has been examined critically, it is something science can easily explain. |
|
raven
Jupiter
That ain't Earth, kiddies.
Posts: 509
|
Post by raven on Jan 12, 2009 23:20:21 GMT -4
Rather then dismiss the idea off hand, we should look at the evidence, and then decide. It is just possible, that sometimes, somewhere, somehow, people are really seeing something that present science can not explain. And every time (that I'm aware of) the evidence has been examined critically, it is something science can easily explain. Good. |
|
Al Johnston
"Cheer up!" they said, "It could be worse!" So I did, and it was.
Posts: 1,453
|
Post by Al Johnston on Jan 13, 2009 7:12:10 GMT -4
A while back there were apparently sightings on CCTV at Hampton Court: the question "Why is that 'ghost' wearing a security pass?" didn't go down too well with the believers  |
|
