Belief in the Paranormal? Why are skeptics so hostile? (phenomena, ghost, UFO)

[sheena12]

If the media, including but not limited to, television programing and the film industry, popular literature, the growth of supernatural beliefs that fall outside of one of the main stream religions (New Age groups, Wicca, Astrology etc.) are any indication, interest in these subjects is on the rise.

Television and Hollywood do not do charity work. The past ten years have seen a preponderance of programing and films that deal with these subjects.

TV "Medium" "The Ghost Whisperer" "Paranormal State" " The Haunted" "A Haunting" "Ghost Hunters" "Ghost Hunters International" "Ghost Adventures"
"Psychic Kids" "Americas most Haunted" and others.

My local cable TV provider has a monthly Astrology "on demand"

The film industry has given us "Paranormal Activity" "The Rite" "A Haunting in Connecticut" "An American Haunting" "The Sixth Sense" "Signs" "The Amityville Horror" (remake) "Insidious" "The Last Exorcism" "The Blair Witch Project" and "1406." There are so many more.

So if you believe in the paranormal what aspects do you believe in? What part interests you most? If you don't believe in it, we know why. You have made that abundantly clear - "there is no proof'
I am also guessing that you have never had such an experience.

My thought is that some people who are wildly irritated by such beliefs, are threatened by anything that they can not control or quantify.

IF you are a believer in ANY of these topics - Which ones?

Why do you think people on CD - and elsewhere, become so hostile?

I for example, do not care about professional sports. I am not sure what they add to society and what the huge fascination with them is all about. Yet I acknowledge that in the US and elsewhere, they are important.
The existence of professional sports, and their massive popularity does not drive me to distraction. I just don't care. But DH would disagree.

Moderator cut: Off Topic

Thanks! ` Sheena12

[Benjamin Hubard]

People are hostile because until recent years and centuries they have cowered before superstition, needlessly living their lives according to fear of totally imagined phenomena, and for the most part people are fiercely protective of the relative grip we now hold on reality.

[BigCityDreamer]

Originally Posted by sheena12

If you don't believe in it, we know why. You have made that abundantly clear - "there is no proof'
I am also guessing that you have never had such an experience.

Who is this "we" you're talking about. That is divisive.

Basically, what you said above is correct. Many of us experience things that we cannot easily explain. However, those who think rationally will seek rational explanations to unexplained phenomena.

To a scientific/skeptic person, it's not even clear what paranormal activity is. Every phenomena potentially has a rational explanation, even though it may not be so evident immediately what that is.

[texdav]

I don't think skeptics are hostile but just think its BS ;as they say until they experice it themselves. I am 64 and never have experienced anything. Those TV shows always expexience it weekly which really does lend much credibilty to the beliefs. Voices;apparitions are weekly common occurances.

[Nozzferrahhtoo]

Originally Posted by sheena12

My thought is that some people who are wildly irritated by such beliefs, are threatened by anything that they can not control or quantify.

Why do you think people on CD - and elsewhere, become so hostile?

I think "guess" would be better than "thought" here. The reason people become "hostile" is a lot more complicated than you let on and has nothing to do with feelings of being "threatened" or any other such strawman.

People just generally do not like being lied to. If they seem "hostile" to you it is because the industries you mention, and the claims they entail, are unsubstantiated and have been full of liars, charlatans and thieves.

People become "hostile" because in this world people genuinely work hard for their money, their livelihood and their dreams. Yet the world is also full of quacks, charlatans and con artists who do not work hard at all but make a quick buck out of exploration, lies and ignorance. They make whole careers out of trickery and nonsense and lies, such as people like Deepak Chopora.

What is worse the purveyors of woo have to actively breed more ignorance in order to perpetrate the kind of environment in which they can succeed and laugh all the way to the bank with the money they con from people. So they target our children too in order to fill their minds with unsubstantiated stultifying nonsense.

And it is not just the money of the conned they steal too. That would be bad enough. But to compound the "hostility" they steal the money of people who know better too. For example when money taken from the tax payer is put into a Health Service such as the one in the UK, which then uses that money to pay out claims on people using homoeopathy. The money of hard working tax payers is taken to pay for little bottles of very expensive water in other words.

Faced with such con artists, lies, thievery, targeting of children and fraud I am genuinely baffled that anyone else could be baffled at the "hostility" targetted towards such purveyors of woo and lies.

[virgode]

Originally Posted by BigCityDreamer

.
Basically, what you said above is correct. Many of us experience things that we cannot easily explain. However, those who think rationally will seek rational explanations to unexplained phenomena.

To a scientific/skeptic person, it's not even clear what paranormal activity is. Every phenomena potentially has a rational explanation, even though it may not be so evident immediately what that is.

So, basically you're saying anything that can't be explained scientifically, is hence "irrational".

Paranormal is a general term (coined ca. 1915–1920[) that designates experiences that lie outside "the range of normal experience or scientific explanation or that indicates phenomena understood to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure.[

.

Originally Posted by Nozzferrahhtoo

.
People just generally do not like being lied to. If they seem "hostile" to you it is because the industries you mention, and the claims they entail, are unsubstantiated and have been full of liars, charlatans and thieves.

People become "hostile" because in this world people genuinely work hard for their money, their livelihood and their dreams. Yet the world is also full of quacks, charlatans and con artists who do not work hard at all but make a quick buck out of exploration, lies and ignorance. They make whole careers out of trickery and nonsense and lies, such as people like Deepak Chopora.

And it is not just the money of the conned they steal too. That would be bad enough. But to compound the "hostility" they steal the money of people who know better too. For example when money taken from the tax payer is put into a Health Service such as the one in the UK, which then uses that money to pay out claims on people using homoeopathy. The money of hard working tax payers is taken to pay for little bottles of very expensive water in other words.

I do agree the popularity of these programs invite frauds and liars. But I wouldn't totally dismiss them all.

Deepak Chopra and homopathic remedies paid by the UK healthcare system is irrevalent to the topic.

Originally Posted by Benjamin Hubard

People are hostile because until recent years and centuries they have cowered before superstition, needlessly living their lives according to fear of totally imagined phenomena,

Paranormal activity has nothing to do with witch hunts, folklore and superstition.

[oberon_1]

I don't know about supernatural and paranormal much. I am however, irritated over the growing number of movies, books, "documentaries", discussion groups, ect. Shrewd guys who found great ways to make money from nothing. Here are a few examples I remember (in no specific order):
1) TV programs about ghosts and haunted houses: a house is deemed possessed and "experts" are brought in with scientific instruments – heat seeking devices, sensitive microphones, high res cameras, motion detectors. They sit all night trying to make contact with the “entity”. Next day, when analyzing the footage they detect something. It is always “unclear” what that something is. Then, they start speculating “could that be the spirit of the house owner who was murdered in 1885”? Or, is it the maid who was raped in 1931 “as town records show”. Could that be? Sure, anything can be, but is it?
Assuming that the temperature in the room changed suddenly – what does it prove? What are you going to do with that? Nothing, beyond wasting people’s time and milking money from TV channels. I am always thinking - what will they do with the lower temperature? And the shadow behind the cameraman? It looks like a soldier... yeah. What now?
2) In search of BIGFOOT: A series of 13 episodes about folks frantically going from one corner of the country to another, interviewing people who saw a sasquatch. Casts are made from footprints and hair samples are collected to be later analyzed (the samples always turn out to be contaminated, thus unclear). The climax is when the participants start making “sasquatch voices” trying to allure the creature and bring back evidence. The result: not one pic, videoclip or single bone. Nada. As in the previous example, they spend the last 10 min of each episode speculating: can bigfoot be hiding in that forest? Is it possible bigfoot is a hybrid between humans and apes? Could sasquatch be a Neanderthal decedent? (and so on)...
Could it? Yes, it could, but is it?
A new fraudulent profession was born: not only UFO researchers, but people who know exactly why the UFOs are here: to warn human kind about X, Y or Z. Yes, these people who are interviewed, know precisely not only if UFOs exist, but why are they here. Anyway, a great profession for a recessed economy.
Spending 13 episodes on such crap and other similar paranormal occurrences is nothing short of fraud and I find it irritating, to say the least.

[Nozzferrahhtoo]

Originally Posted by virgode

I do agree the popularity of these programs invite frauds and liars. But I wouldn't totally dismiss them all.

But I would. If I dismiss one I have to dismiss the other for the simple reason that each of those things has the exact same level of evidence as the other. That is: None. Therefore they are quite comparable and equally dismissable.

Originally Posted by virgode

Deepak Chopra and homopathic remedies paid by the UK healthcare system is irrevalent to the topic.

False. The claims of Deepak are as paranormal, superstitious, magical, woo filled and evidence devoid as claims get for example. Therefore not only are they on topic for such a thread as this, they are as on topic as it gets.

[nimchimpsky]

Most people who believe in real life paranormal phenomena will tell you that the stuff on TV is totally hyped up and dramatized for entertainment value. Therefore connecting real life belief in the paranormal to TV shows makes no sense whatsoever. It's like equating real life with reality TV.

[auntieannie68]

Originally Posted by Nozzferrahhtoo

But I would. If I dismiss one I have to dismiss the other for the simple reason that each of those things has the exact same level of evidence as the other. That is: None. Therefore they are quite comparable and equally dismissable.



False. The claims of Deepak are as paranormal, superstitious, magical, woo filled and evidence devoid as claims get for example. Therefore not only are they on topic for such a thread as this, they are as on topic as it gets.

homeopathy has no connection with the paranormal whatsoever--it exsists around the use of plants and combos of natural things to assist in treating illnesses

paranormal deals with encountering the energies of the spirit (not always the energy of a once living human)---there is so much more to the paranormal----delving into both areas more thoroughly would help you understand the difference between 2 very different topics---and avoid those plumber ghost shows,silly college boy shows(paranormal state),and humerous older men(ghost adventures)--they r simply entertainment----btw---not every spirit says "get out"--like those shows would make one believe