From The Daily Grail: "Misdirected Search for God in the Brain"

Good post from The Daily Grail on scientists who insist we're hard wired to believe in God, god, gods, .... that's all a matter of wiring, brain stuff, biological destiny, that we "want to" see ghosts, aliens, God, etc.

This "positing" of supernatural beings, and variations on the theme (e.g. 'people want to believe that something is in control of life, and so posit a supernatural being to cool their anxiety') seem like instances of trying to be too intellectual, and ignoring an obvious fact: that people *see* and *talk to* supernatural beings. They have since the beginning of recorded history, and probably before. We can argue as to whether they are creations of the mind, or objectively real (or on the spectrum between), but there is no 'positing' required. Perhaps for left-brained researchers who don't have the ability to interact with the 'other', but not for a large amount of people.

JREF Watch: "Skeptical Activism"

Skeptical activism, and a pdf you can download for free with tips on how to be actively skeptical in your community! Not content with being skeptical, this thread encourages the skeptoid to get out there and work it, baby!

From Blogsquatcher: "Belief and Skepticism Amongst Those Who Believe Crazy Things

Blogsquatcher has an excellent post on the limits those who investigate fringe topics put on other fringe topics. Example:

I'm often amused at how insular the various "fringe science" and esoteric categories are. UFO people laugh at bigfoot people, who laugh back, while both laugh at ghost hunters, who are laughing all the way to the bank. It gets a little ridiculous when you think about it. A bioacoustician, Elizabeth von Muggenthaler, once said, speaking of a Vermont lake monster,

This just doesn't belong in the same category as crop circles or a Sasquatch sighting. It needs to be treated as real. You don't want to minimize the scientific importance of this.

The inspiration for his post came from the comments some Bigfoot people; researchers, etc. made upon hearing his podcast with a "paranormal" Bigfoot researcher. And these are from "believers" -- we expect the knee jerk reactions from the skeptoids, but when it comes from within esoterica...

Lastly, he makes a very good point about listening. Just listening, without judgement, just, listening to the story, the experience, as is. It's a lot harder than it sounds, and for some, it's impossible.

Woo TV: UFO Hunters and the New Guy

Sadly, UFO Hunters has decided to replace Dr. Ted with a skeptoid. The good guys -- Bill Birnes, publisher of UFO Magazine, (yes, full disclosure, I do write a column for them) and Pat Uskert, both looked they just ate rancid prunes when trying their best to put up with this clown, but Kevin Cook, the skeptoid, came off as a smug, know it all, smarmy ass.

As usual with skeptoids and UFOs, Cook made all kinds of assumptions and weird interpretations; Pat says he has a theory UFOs are attracted to areas with certain types of mineral deposits, including gold; Cook makes the leap that Pat "believes ET is coming for the gold." Cook acted like this was a way out kook theory, where, anyone who's studied UFOs in any way knows that there are several researchers who consider this a possibility; and that includes some skeptics.


And for God's sake!!!! Please stop asking "Do you believe in UFOs?" and saying things like "It could be a real UFO." A UFO is something you cannot identify, and that makes it a "real" UFO. It makes it a UFO. Oy, don't get me started. But Kevin Cook made these goofs many times during the episode. Which happened to be a great episode despite Cook's interference; the triangle UFO enigma, including some daylight sighting footage was great.

Which brings us to: Cook's response to that. He views the footage, claims it could be anything. Well, very true. Still, while it could be anything, it's also a fact we don't know what that anything is. Er, um, hey Mr. Skepti-pants, that makes it a UFO. (this after film analysis proved it was an object and not just three lights in the sky ; flares, helicopters, or owls.) Cook is not convinced (it's not clear what he thinks he should be convinced of) things are UFOs, and that's that. But Cook has front loaded (did I just say "front loaded?" And is that a compound word, or two words?) I'm A Skeptic Dammit! act with the beliefs that:
UFOs mean aliens from outer space
There are "real" UFOs, and there are "not real UFOs" (not to be confused with IFOs)
Whenever someone talks about UFOs they're a true believer kook-head
Triangles and other UFOs make noise
and so on . . .

So when a witness to an extremely low flying triangle said the object (UFO) did not make any noise at all, that only proved to Cook the story was "suspect." Why? Because the UFO didn't make any noise! Kevin, dahling, if you've done the research into UFOs and in particular the triangle UFOs, you would have known that witnesses the world over have reported that the lack of sound, of noise, of buzzing, or motors, or gear grinding, or rumbles, or any noise at all is heard. Occasionally a low level humming has been heard, but that's about it. I myself saw a triangle and there was no noise. No sound. No nothing. As huge as it was, as low as it was, as right above our goddamn heads it was --- no sound. We wouldn't have even known it was there if we hadn't been intentionally looking up at the night sky.

It seems the producers of UFO Hunters have accepted the misguided idea that throwing a skeptic in with the mix is good television. That's a ridiculous idea; like the "happy talk" idea every news producer in this country operates under. Grinning preening talking heads spouting off about empty headed inane trivia while just two minutes ago reporting on the daily horrors. But I digress.

Here's hoping UFO Hunters gets rid of the new skeptoid, or that at least things improve. Maybe Cook will get a clue. I'm certainly not going to give up watching the program. Let's hope Cook gets off his snarky little horse and stops with the smirking , and shows us he's actually done some research about UFOs.