Why What Frightens 'Skeptics' Frightened Einstein

Antaletriangle · 04-14-2009, 12:34 AM

Why What Frightens 'Skeptics' Frightened Einstein

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip..._b_184778.html

I'm fascinated by the fanatical zeal with which self-styled skeptics pounce on non-ordinary events and try to discount them--largely by the liberal use of words like 'preposterous'. Posing as 'scientific', these ideologues are clinging to a materialism long since discredited by quantum physics.

The fear that motivates the armchair skeptics is exemplified by their frequent use of the word 'just', as in: "what these people thought they experienced was just . . . " (imagination, hysteria, group psychosis, etc.). But why the 'just'? 'Just' is what we say when soothing fears--'it's just thunder, dear,' 'it's just a shadow', 'it's just the nice doctor'.

Similarly, newspaper reports of experiments in telepathy and other non-ordinary phenomena always refer to them as 'eerie'. But what makes it 'eerie'? Is it because these phenomena are not accessible to our five senses? Yet we cannot hear sounds above or below certain registers, or see colors of certain wavelengths, yet they exist, and we don't call them 'eerie'. And there is great variation among humans in their sensory ranges. Some are colorblind. Some have no sense of smell. Others have hyper-acuity in one sense or another. Dogs can experience olfactory and auditory frequencies we cannot--does that make them 'eerie? Frogs see a tiny portion of what we do--only what they need to survive. Humans, also, have evolved with a limited perceptual range: only what we need. It would be both arrogant and stupid to assume there isn't a great deal going on around us of which we are mostly unaware.

cont.on link above.

04-14-2009, 12:34 AM	#1
Antaletriangle Avalon Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: U.K. Posts: 3,380	Why What Frightens 'Skeptics' Frightened Einstein Why What Frightens 'Skeptics' Frightened Einstein http://www.huffingtonpost.com/philip..._b_184778.html I'm fascinated by the fanatical zeal with which self-styled skeptics pounce on non-ordinary events and try to discount them--largely by the liberal use of words like 'preposterous'. Posing as 'scientific', these ideologues are clinging to a materialism long since discredited by quantum physics. The fear that motivates the armchair skeptics is exemplified by their frequent use of the word 'just', as in: "what these people thought they experienced was just . . . " (imagination, hysteria, group psychosis, etc.). But why the 'just'? 'Just' is what we say when soothing fears--'it's just thunder, dear,' 'it's just a shadow', 'it's just the nice doctor'. Similarly, newspaper reports of experiments in telepathy and other non-ordinary phenomena always refer to them as 'eerie'. But what makes it 'eerie'? Is it because these phenomena are not accessible to our five senses? Yet we cannot hear sounds above or below certain registers, or see colors of certain wavelengths, yet they exist, and we don't call them 'eerie'. And there is great variation among humans in their sensory ranges. Some are colorblind. Some have no sense of smell. Others have hyper-acuity in one sense or another. Dogs can experience olfactory and auditory frequencies we cannot--does that make them 'eerie? Frogs see a tiny portion of what we do--only what they need to survive. Humans, also, have evolved with a limited perceptual range: only what we need. It would be both arrogant and stupid to assume there isn't a great deal going on around us of which we are mostly unaware. cont.on link above.