If your first reaction to seeing something initially unexplainable is, "OMG it's a ghost", what the hell is wrong with you? Why would you leap to such a conclusion first, before considering ANY reasonable explanation? Well I bet I can guess why, and it's summed up perfectly by the goofball at the end of the video who said, "I wish it was him. That would be great."
This is how people "know" such things like their god is real, that they're visited by dead loved ones, that someone's survival from an accident was a divine act (or conversely that a major tragedy was divine punishment, like Katrina being punishment for letting the gays frolic in public), that prayer can heal, that pixies in Iceland are real, Bigfoot and Nessie are real, the New Jersey devil is real (no, I'm not talking about Brodeur), there's a heaven and hell, and so on, because they wish it were true, 'cause that would be great.
Now before this video explanation, the ghost believers would argue that you don't KNOW what's on the video isn't Michael Jackson's ghost, but what kind of an argument is that? Is that an argument for the thing being a ghost? No, it's an argument for keeping people from popping your wish balloon. I'm sure if you look online right now you'll still find people who reject the explanation, and that's because they need that wish balloon to stay afloat and they'll do anything to keep people from popping it.
So before leaping to the conclusion you wish for, take some time to consider the conclusion which is most probable. Personally, I wish everybody would start doing that, 'cause that would be great!
Give this post a thumbs up
I dig this post
Vote up on The Atheist Spot
15 comments:
Great stuff right there.
I am not sure it is because we "wish" it were true, but instead that the dualist illusion is a natural disposition of the mind.
Though I am an atheist, I have had a couple of ghost experiences ( My Mom & A Rapist).
Paul Bloom (Yale Univ, Psych), feels we are naturally born dualist -- it is an inborn cognitive illusion. So it is not a desire to see, we just see.
I do feel some people are more inclined to dualistic hallucinations more than others even BEFORE they may desire to see such things. Much as some people are more inclined to hear sounds better than others or understand foreign languages easier than others.
So, perhaps PhillyChief is one of those "Natural Atheists" who is not especially inclined to such experiences and thus finds those who have different experiences from himself a bit repugnant.
I read the Bloom article before and didn't care for it. 5 month olds see bodies and souls as entirely distinct, do they? And here I thought they were just crying, eating and shitting. What did his team do, a Vulcan mind meld to determine what the 5 month olds were thinking? You get grants at Yale for shit like that? Wow.
People may see hallucinations BEFORE they may desire to see such things, but once they see them, the desire makes them accept them, whereas an absence of desire would probably provoke doubt and then inquiry.
So perhaps Sabio is one of those people who thinks if you write civilly, no one will notice your hostility. ;)
It looks like ET's shadow.
....or possibly it's Bigfoot's shadow.
All theories so far are wrong. I can say with supreme confidence that the figure was either:
(1) The ghost of Beethoven, wondering why a relatively low-level talent like Michael Jackson is being covered 24/7 on every fucking TV network, radio station, magazine, and newspaper in the world, or
(2) The ghost of the founder of NAMBLA, wondering why MJ didn't pay this month's dues.
I certainly wish either of those were true, 'cause that would be great.
Sabio Lantz "So, perhaps PhillyChief is one of those "Natural Atheists" who is not especially inclined to such experiences and thus finds those who have different experiences from himself a bit repugnant."
Or his character class is "Nega-Psychic" from the RPG Beyond the Supernatural (and, yes, I'm such a nerd).
PhillyChief "5 month olds see bodies and souls as entirely distinct, do they? And here I thought they were just crying, eating and shitting."
Yes, but their souls are shitting on the inside, which makes for a terribly messy psyche.
How the hell could anyone see that and not think immediately, "shadow?"
Pretty effective data, thanks so much for your article.
Very useful material, much thanks for this article.
Thank you for this article, quite effective data.
Post a Comment