Why are skeptics so into the paranormal?

Question

I don't spend my time telling people Santa isn't real.

Answer 1

They have nothing better to do with their time.

Answer 2

Same reason-Atheists-work so hard at disproving--THEY terrified--that all those subject's--Might be true

Answer 3

Because it frightens them...

http://www.moonslipper.com/ghosts.html

Answer 4

What would you say to someone who told you that not only is Santa real, but he is also responsible for vivid dreams and things that go bump in the night?

I, a skeptic, am into the paranormal because I too once believed in ghosts and ESP.  I too was once lied to by those fools like Sylvia Browne and John Edward.  I was taken in by spooky stories.  I am not one to simply declare it's fake and just write it off as something silly that people do and are free to believe in.  I don't care what you or anyone else believes.  It's a basic human right to come to terms with the world in your own way.  However, I do take a keen interest in preventing those who are undecided from hearing explanations from only one side of the aisle.  I am also unwilling for some people to speak of the unsubstantiated as if it were fact.

My skeptical position is not dogmatic.  I have no sacred cows.  My position stands on its own.  It is based on fact and on what is in the observable world.  It is not the result of a biased, subjective and personal interpretation of the world, but results directly from the evidence at hand.  It requires no fanciful explanation or any need for interpretation.  It is not a *belief*, but an objective acknowledgment of what is there.

Answer 5

What do you mean Santa's NOT REAL???????

*uncontrollable sobbing*

Answer 6

I don't know the answer to this question but I feel you. I have Christain friends that are into this stuff. I say their is only one God.

And  " SANTA RULES"

Answer 7

To prove to themselves that they are right and everyone else is wrong.

Answer 8

They feel they are smarter than everyone else and that those that have differing opinions are morons.

Their incessant need to control what others think is no different than Hitler or any other wanna-be dictator except they don't have any real power.

I see it in the Religion and Spirituality section all the time.

Answer 9

skeptic doesnt mean someone is not interested in a topic, just that they want to understand it.

A believer wants to make up crazy notions and psuedo-science to justify thier beliefs.

A skeptic wants to really find out how and why things work.

A believer takes anything anyone says without question, no matter how unlogical or strange it is.

A skeptic trys to sort through the logical and far-out crazy c**p.

A believer puts more weight on old wives tales, rumors, and urban legends than they do in logic and reason. For example a believer accepts without question that someone can die and become earthbound, and wander around the earth with unfinished business.

A skeptic tries to really understand the issue and solve the problems through logic and reason.

If not for skeptics we would not know many of the common causes of hauntings like sleep paralysis and narcilepsy and infrasound and cold reading.

Edit: for the record let me point out that Sylvia Browne and John Edwards are not believers, they simply prey on them.

Answer 10

Zachary, nice rhetoric. The question is "hy are skeptics so passionate" and you changed it to, "Does he want no differing opinions."

Distract, make them defend is good strategy but not every time. You can't change the main point of the question you have to be more covert.

Be fair and watch the rhetoric. It is getting pretty common bud.

Answer 11

That's a very fair question and it deserves a fair answer.  In 1974 there was an evangelical faith healer named Jim Jones.  He took his entire congregation of believers down to South America and founded this camp he called Jonestown.  He sat around all day in his pavilion with a microphone preaching and brainwashing his people.  He was their king, their Messiah.  But there were armed guards, and relatives at home were afraid for the members.  They wanted to know if they were staying there voluntarily.

   So congressman Leo Ryan went down in 1978 to see what was going on.  He was polite and non-intrusive, but as he was leaving, Jones ordered a hit squad to murder him and those with him at the air strip.  He then ordered his entire congregation to commit suicide, and they did.  They were nice enough to kill the kids first. 909 people died.  If they weren't so gullible, if they used a little reason, this wouldn't have happened.

   Not all silly beliefs are as potentially threatening as this one, or Charles Manson, or David Koresh, or Heaven's Gate, or Osama Bin Laden.  But many are perpetuated by those who profit from the beliefs of the gullible.  It's a big industry of fraud and misrepresentation.

   I am disheartened that people seem to need so much more than life has to offer and will believe in anything.  This world, the real world, is more amazing and wonderful than we can ever know.  Even the most avid learners among us never run out of things to be in awe of.

  If there are such things as supernatural or paranormal, scientists would be most interested.  If there aren't, then some of us feel we have to share our knowledge.  I probably know more about UFOs than 99.9% of the people who believe in them, for example.  We aren't eager to spoil people's dreams, just help them differentiate between what is real and what is not.

  Oh, and I forgot to say: skeptics are here because this is a science forum where believing in something because you like it or think it's cool, is a poor reason for believing.

  Tannum, most of the skeptics I know are atheists.  It follows.  God is the biggest paranormal scam of all.

Answer 12

I have two possible ideas about this question.

First, I think people can be fascinated by any topic regardless of their particular philosophy in life or their opinions about it's reality. So, there are as many reasons as there are people about why someone is interested in psychic phenomena.

Second, there is something in the realm of philosophy/psychology called the "Rational Man Mistake" This idea proposes that most people expect people to be rational. In other words when a person is presented with evidence that meets the criteria (and often surpasses) the evidence of all the social sciences and medical research you would expect that person to be swayed by the evidence (just like people accept that aspirin may help prevent heart attacks, in fairness not everyone believes this but most practicing physicians accept the evidence) and accept the findings.

However, if the findings contradict the beliefs (or previously learned knowledge) the person does not accept it but instead the new evidence actually reinforces the persons old beliefs (knowledge) and they defend their position even more vigorously.

Again in fairness this can happen when a true believer is presented with the possibility of normal explanation as easily as it happens to a skeptic confronted with research that contradicts their beliefs.

In my opinion.

Answer 13

You already have excellent answers but still I would like to add my two cents worth.

A skeptic is not always a non believer, but merely someone who will not believe without hard evidence. Way too many people in the paranormal field of interest today are true believers but claim to be skeptic and this is not what I consider a skeptic.

To me the skeptic if presented with hard facts and evidence will be a believer but they demand the hard evidence and facts. I myself am a true believer and am not ashamed to admit it. i do not see the paranormal in everything  do or everywhere I go and some tell me I am a skeptic but that is not so I am a firm believer in ghosts and the paranormal.

BB

Answer 14

Dave S. nice rhetoric to Zach. Zach do not be insulted but rather listen and learn/ You have made some excellent and valid points on here  at times. I myself am not a skeptic but rather a staunch believer of such things, however i do try to debunk much of what I hear or even the things that I experience. Many times there is a logical explaination. Sometimes i'll see something out of the corner of my eye and say "I see that" and yeah, the cat decided to walk two feet... okay, However, it also validates the things that I do think that I see when there is no valid explaination.

Now to answer the question. Many people like to debate in general.... whether it be politics, ghosts, supernatural, religion , color, race, creed. ethnicity. ethnocentricity. gender, dress and they find themselves drawn into particular debates that interest them the most. I have told this story on there at least twice, but I saw what I believed to be a UFO in 1973 or 1974. I was talking about UFOs in a darkened field in the center of a big park, My companion said "Look Kim " and pointed upward to the sky. By the time that I followed his finger all I saw was trails. The colors were vivid and distinct. They created a V shape and I was dumbfounded and amazed. We gaped at eachother, each one wanting the other to verify what they saw before opening theier mouths. We were afterall, talking about UFO's at the moment of sighting. HE stammered "Did you see the craft"? and we both said "Wow, the ccccc-oolors". Once again I will remind you that in those days we did not have those colors in our vocabulary, the closest we had then was day-glo colors and these did not compare to anything that we saw. In answer to his question, I did not see the craft. He put his hands together and made a triangular type shape and said that it looked like that and was very black. THe colors were amazing. VIvid Purple, hot pink, irredescent yellow, a turqoise blue that was unimaginable. We had no vocabulary to explain to anyone else these colors. Flash forward twenty years (or there about) and I am at a party for kids (bored) when I meet another kids father  and for some reason I ask him what his hobbies were. He told me that one of his passions was to de-bunk UFO sightings (see? now we are back to the hpbby of being skeptic and de-bunking things).... I told him my story and he replied that this is one of the most common ones that he gets all of the time. Un beknownst to us they were testing the stealth plane in that year. There was a base near by. This stealth travels at the speed of sound and therefore you will not hear it as it flies over head no matter  how low. It is quick, quiet and effecient, that is until it emits a gas that lights the craft up completely and leaves these vivid trails of immense color behind. It is only visible for a second or two   but it is enough to have had it removed from secret fighting at night. So who knew? You see, even an avid believer as myself can be set right upon things that I knew I saw. Of course, BTW no one believed that story before I found out the tag ending to it, but I will tell you this I swore I saw it and I know I saw it  and now it is also believable that I saw it. De-bunking is not always such a bad thing at all.

Not believeing in Santa and not believing in the paranormal really are not the same things although I thought your question cleverly put.

I think that alot of people who are skeptical really do want to believe and are just waiting for that end all be all , all out proof that will cast no doubt in their minds that it really exists. I wish them luck and the best in their search and am certain that something will happen at one point or another that will get them onto our side. After all is it not better to believe that we will all be together in a far more stable place? with mountains of books and knowledge and answers to all of our questions and to be back together with those that we have loved and want to be with? I wish that for each and every one of us.

Answer 15

.  I try to be open minded about the subject. It's interesting.

Answer 16

You WOULD spend your time telling people that Santa wasn't real if they claimed that they could talk to Santa and that he wanted your money to heal your kid or tell your future.  The paranormal does a lot of damage to people's lives, especially the superstitious.  We're here to help.

Answer 17

Santa is the spirit of Christmas, so he's as real as you want him to be.

If you can't answer a skeptic, is your belief logical?

Answer 18

You asked a good question why is it so important for skeptics to try and disprove the belief in the paranormal my only answer is that some people have to have something staring them in the face or shown to be fact by science .I think this is taken to far when a person tries to disprove an others belief in something just because a person has not experienced the paranormal does not mean that the millions of others that have are wrong in their belief it is not our job to prove to skeptic that the paranormal exists. there are countless documented reports and evidence of the paranormal gathered by credible people. I have seen it first hand I have experienced it . people have a right to their opinions and beliefs and it is good that we can share them.

I think it is wrong to ask another person to prove why they believe the things they do that is there right I read all the time the remarks by others criticizing this subject and the placement of the paranormal phenomena in the science and mathematics section keep this in mind the paranormal community did not make that choice take it up with yahoo. If we are going to take this from a scientific standpoint we are all off the subject matter.Showing skepticism or belief or trying to prove or disprove a persons beliefs has nothing to do with science now does it? I would also say that KBW3 use of jim jones and charles manson and osama bin-laden in comparison to believers in the paranormal is used in poor taste what do they have to do with the gentlemans question or better yet the paranormal? or science in general? And refering to god as the biggest paranormal scam of all is out of line and insulting to others who choose to believe in god I was once bothered by skeptics in this forum for their thinking but I have come to respect and appreciate their input I enjoy reading Zachs and Peters responses because they are respectful of the people who ask their questions even though they disagree with it they provide their input respectfully and it is appreciated what a person believes in is their choice and their choice alone and is not the responsability for others to insult or disprove. there are frauds in all  areas of society in almost all professions. It is a sad but true fact.So with all this said we should all be respectful to all in here whether believers or non-believers lets keep it that way

Answer 19

I've always thought it was a cool subject. Even now, grown up as a scientist and needing evidence to believe, I still think it's an interesting subject. I'd say more but Peter already said it better than I could.

Answer 20

I am a skeptical believer in ghosts, as fr the psychic phenom. you can have it, because you cant prove it using any equipment.

Answer 21

being paraskeptic is normal

Answer 22

Probably scares them,they are closed minded,but,mostly have never had paranormal experiences themselves,and need to see it to believe it.If they were psychic themselves,they would no longer ignore that.

Answer 23

I stay out of Religion and Spirituality and Folklore and Myth.Here in Science and Math,it's a little different.I don't want the paranormal legitimized as a Science.For someone just passing through this section,they could get that idea.If there were no other points of view.I've been interested in the paranormal since I was a kid.I just reached different conclusions then you.I like horror movies,but I don't believe they are based on fact Do we really only want an amen chorus?Are we asking questions or just wanting to exchange spooky stories?Besides, isn't it more fun this way?

Edit.Dave,Don't call me bud.

Answer 24

I think that they don't know weather or not its true and it bothers them.  They feel like they have to take a stand, or they will go to h**l or whatever the persons version of h**l is......

Answer 25

sometimes it feels like if they cant prove it fake or have some normal reason for it,then fear sets in and every thing that modern civilisations has been taught,goes out the window.and I'm pretty sure that the facts are pointing to that the unexplainable is more factual than they can except.arrogance is part of being sceptical....only the pure mind and spirit  can accept the fact that all things are possible and we are in the mist of learning that.There are things that go bump in the night,in the day,and everywhere you least expect it....whether its a good bump or a bad bump.....well that's all in the education of the experience......Blessed be!

Answer 26

Most want to press their way of thinking on others. Most are semi to hard core Christian types and would go against their belief if they believed.

Answer 27

First, read what KB3W said.  I'll wait, it's a long comment, but it's worth reading in its entirety.

Done?

I'm not "into" the paranormal.  But I do find it worthwhile to tell people that the paranormal isn't real.  If it was, it wouldn't be paranormal:  It would be real.

If, as someone asked one time, what if a magician was doing real magic, it would be a bit scary, but also it would be INCREDIBLY EXCITING:  It would change how we do science forever.  It would mean that some things that we have come to accept as laws in science might need to be changed, and yadda yadda.  Only here is the thing - these laws?  They have been figured out over the past thousand years. And those who have said they were exempt from these laws?  They have always and every time been shown to be either wrong, or lying, or misguided.

Answer 28

I dunno..but I do know that paranormal is real and I don't need no skeptic to tell me that. I've seen, heard and felt it all. If you haven't, you just are dismissing it or don't want to. A lot of times, paranormal don't happen to ppl who are afraid of it, I know that contridicts scary movies, but it's true.

Answer 29

What's Santa got to do with the paranormal??? He's the most normal  person in this crazy world.

I can't answer for skeptics. I know that when I didn't have any proof of ghosts etc...I was still interested in paranormal things. Doesn't mean I believed it...just meant I was open to both sides. I just want the truth. If skeptics can show that there's an explanation for the paranormal things that happen...then I'm open to it. Just like that girl...when the lights went out.

EDIT...BTW...I'm AGAINST "calling up" spirits , mind control , and a lot of paranormal things. But that doesn't mean they don't happen. Skeptics want to deny that this happens. I want to say IT HAPPENS....but STAY AWAY FROM IT.!!!

Answer 30

Most people want to belive in the mysterious. Unfortunatly most of it is not safe to get into because it can dammage you mentally, and spiritually. There are also alot of scammers out there who confuse what is"real" and what isn't(which is a shame) Skeptics are the ones who try to prove that something isn't real. By the way,"Santa" is real,there are alot of sites you can find on the history of Santa, and I made this:

http://www.pandorabots.com/pandora/talk?...

because of the"fun" of the Christmas season.

Just try to stay away from the"dark" mysteries, and you should be ok;)

Answer 31

All the skeptics I've met seem to have "key topics" that they are skeptical about, e.g. religion, man causing climate change etc. I'm sure there are people out there how are skeptical about the paranormal.