The sceptic's sceptic!

[Blubird]

There are alot of sceptics out there regarding the paranormal, alot of websites dedicated to the sceptic approach, but it seems to me all they are doing is trying to debunk the paranormal and therefore debunk themselves.
I think it is prudent to have a questioning mind rather than a cynical mind. It seems some sceptics trip over themselves just trying to debunk believers and the paranormal, to me they should be trying to prove the paranormal exists!
Are we just looking at ghosts etc from the wrong angle

[Brian]

Nov 1, 2010 20:24:39 GMT 1 Blubird said:

... but it seems to me all they are doing is trying to debunk the paranormal and therefore debunk themselves ...

I don't quite understand this statement. Sceptics are not making claims, therefore cannot be debunked as I see it. Sceptics are asking for reliable physical evidence for the claims of paranormalists, and they are not getting it. When they are offered questionable evidence, they debunk it as any good sceptic should. If the paranormal people would leave it at that, and then just fall back on pure belief, I think most sceptics would also leave it at that.

But most paranormal believers refuse to accept that the evidence they are offering is flawed in any way, so the sceptics feel the need to continue their debunking in the hope that the believers will finally see the problems with what they are offering. If they do not, at least some of the fence-sitters might begin to see why they should question this after watching the debate for a while.

This eventually becomes a long, drawn out thing that never seems to end. Neither side is willing to give ground to the other for fear of seeming to lose. If the sceptics give up the fight and join in the hunt for the paranormal they will be forced to use the same methods that the believers use and so will have become their enemy. This is not going to happen .. and for good reason. More than a hundred years worth of believers trying to make their flawed evidence work has clearly shown it to be a dead end ( pun unintentional ).

The majority of sceptics do have questioning minds, even the bull-headed ones. But they can only take the same worthless evidence being thrown at them by believers for so long, and then they must form a strong opposition or let science be trodden under the feet of faith based belief. Under these conditions is would be extremely difficult for anyone to do any kind of decent research in this area.

In my opinion it is the responsibility of the paranormal believers to back down on their poorly made claims of evidence and proof or there will never be any scientifically minded person who will ever be comfortable trying to do proper research on this themselves. Unfortunately the every day lay person has latched on to this as a way for them to be a part of something big, to which they can make their own contributions, so I don't hold out any hope of that ever changing anytime in the foreseeable future.

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