I used to think that skeptics were ‘merely’ folks who had a higher standard of proof than I had.
Or, who perhaps were all from Missouri and had to see things with their own eyes and handle them with their own hands to believe things were remotely real [a rather impossible way to live, BTW].
I thought that some might even be somewhat fair-minded and objective.
I no longer believe such fantasies about skeptics.
As a psychologist, it is still a keen curiosity of mine but a far less important one to me than it used to be.
So many of their assertions are so utterly devoid of any rational perspective or solid foundation that they are beyond laughable. They are merely ‘AGIN IT.’ as old timers used to be . . . such as some of my grandparents age simply not believing that airplanes could really fly—or if they did get off the ground—that they could stay off the ground to their destination safely. It was not part of their growing up experience so they simply didn’t believe it. Case closed.
It has also been amazing to me that they will live their daily lives—evidently accepting witness testimony on thousands of things as mostly valid to extremely valid—except in this sphere.
If they had 100 people of all walks of life—including policemen, MD’s, lawyers, scientists, Military full bird officers, nurses, professors, physicists, etc. tell them that they had all been on a trip through the Grand Canyon and discovered some incredibly unique fossiles never seen before—they would be very inclined to believe them or at least consider the mostly consistent reports probably correct.
Yet, in this sphere, we have many thousands of high quality expert witnesses and the best the skeptics can muster is
TOTAL BLIND FAITH IN DISBELIEF.
It’s mind-boggling.
They also seem to be utterly oblivious—even those somewhat scientifically minded—they seem to be utterly oblivious to the
REPEATEDLY DEMONSTRATED SCIENTIFIC PHENOMENON
that WHEN one leans so far over AWAY FROM a TYPE I ERROR,
one AUTOMATICALLY FALLS UNALTERABLY IN THE LAP OF, THE JAWS OF A TYPE II ERROR.
WHY are they so ignorant of that phenomenon?
Why the mental disconnect?
It really is a very curious thing.