Jeff Crowell
Paranormal Annoyance
I've noticed quite a few people on the forums claiming themselves to be skeptics and have to question such a claim. There are differences in people who are truly skeptics and people who are skeptical thinkers.
A skeptic is someone who questions everything, and ONLY believes in something that can be empirically proven and replicated (five senses only). They don't just doubt, they disbelieve everything else. Someone who's a skeptical thinker questions everything but is willing to accept some concepts based on the preponderance of evidence or weight of particular arguments. This is also known as critical thinking, and such thinkers aren't likely to take a story of a haunting or UFO abduction too seriously unless they come across personally associative evidence or stories they can directly relate to. Critical thinkers can be skeptical on individual concepts but give some measure of believe in other concepts within any particular field. For instance a critical thinker may believe in aerial unidentified phenomena but be skeptical regarding abductions and contactee claims.
I find it hard to believe that a genuine skeptic would make a home here, on the Paracast, a podcast/website/forum devoted and dedicated to research and discussion on the paranormal (please note, when I use the term 'paranormal' I'm referring to UFO's as well, though some UFO researchers consider the paranormal separate. In this case, I'm not.). A true skeptic couldn't stomach the discussion for much longer than a week or less because every concept would be too outrageous for them.
Here's an example; if you gathered all the UFO encounters for continental United States for the year 2009, say, and weed out conventional and unconventional human aircraft, weather phenomena, hallucinations, mistaken identity, and sensory mis-identification, you'll still have about 2 to 3 percent of the reports titled as "unexplained." I've heard as high as 5 to 10% actually, but people of an open minded nature, even critical thinkers, would say that such a number indicates that something of a paranormal nature is going on. "True believers" would say that number was higher, and not whittle it down as much. A true skeptic, however, will say the number of genuinely paranormal UFO encounters is a resounding 0%. A skeptic would state that the remaining 2 to 3% still falls into the other categories, somewhere, and wouldn't accept that any claim of encounter would be genuinely paranormal in nature.
Based on that, a true skeptic wouldn't have any reason to participate on a website such as the Paracast, and it's my strong opinion that, even the most resounding 'skeptical' person who does participate on this website has some level of belief in the existence of (paranormal) UFOs.
Am I wrong in that? Are there people who honestly disregard every claim of a UFO sighting or contact that participate here on the forums and listen to this podcast? I'm interested to know.
A skeptic is someone who questions everything, and ONLY believes in something that can be empirically proven and replicated (five senses only). They don't just doubt, they disbelieve everything else. Someone who's a skeptical thinker questions everything but is willing to accept some concepts based on the preponderance of evidence or weight of particular arguments. This is also known as critical thinking, and such thinkers aren't likely to take a story of a haunting or UFO abduction too seriously unless they come across personally associative evidence or stories they can directly relate to. Critical thinkers can be skeptical on individual concepts but give some measure of believe in other concepts within any particular field. For instance a critical thinker may believe in aerial unidentified phenomena but be skeptical regarding abductions and contactee claims.
I find it hard to believe that a genuine skeptic would make a home here, on the Paracast, a podcast/website/forum devoted and dedicated to research and discussion on the paranormal (please note, when I use the term 'paranormal' I'm referring to UFO's as well, though some UFO researchers consider the paranormal separate. In this case, I'm not.). A true skeptic couldn't stomach the discussion for much longer than a week or less because every concept would be too outrageous for them.
Here's an example; if you gathered all the UFO encounters for continental United States for the year 2009, say, and weed out conventional and unconventional human aircraft, weather phenomena, hallucinations, mistaken identity, and sensory mis-identification, you'll still have about 2 to 3 percent of the reports titled as "unexplained." I've heard as high as 5 to 10% actually, but people of an open minded nature, even critical thinkers, would say that such a number indicates that something of a paranormal nature is going on. "True believers" would say that number was higher, and not whittle it down as much. A true skeptic, however, will say the number of genuinely paranormal UFO encounters is a resounding 0%. A skeptic would state that the remaining 2 to 3% still falls into the other categories, somewhere, and wouldn't accept that any claim of encounter would be genuinely paranormal in nature.
Based on that, a true skeptic wouldn't have any reason to participate on a website such as the Paracast, and it's my strong opinion that, even the most resounding 'skeptical' person who does participate on this website has some level of belief in the existence of (paranormal) UFOs.
Am I wrong in that? Are there people who honestly disregard every claim of a UFO sighting or contact that participate here on the forums and listen to this podcast? I'm interested to know.