{"id":13488,"date":"2017-12-27T08:45:54","date_gmt":"2017-12-27T14:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=13488"},"modified":"2017-12-27T08:45:54","modified_gmt":"2017-12-27T14:45:54","slug":"and-in-what-do-you-believe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2017\/12\/27\/and-in-what-do-you-believe\/","title":{"rendered":"And In What Do You Believe?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I started this blog I did not anticipate it turning its focus on the political world to the extent that it has, but then I did not anticipate a Trump Presidency, and all the dangers that brings to our liberal democracy. I do tire of it.<\/p>\n

So when I finally opened the most recent issue of Skeptical Inquirer and found an interesting survey, I decided to talk about it a bit: the results of the Chapman University<\/strong><\/em> survey of America<\/a> concerning the American citizens’ beliefs in the paranormal. I really like their snazzy chart:<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In fact, I’m so taken by the chart that I haven’t read the blog post it’s embedded in. I think I’ll freehand this and then read their blog post.<\/p>\n

Belief in Bigfoot or Yeti, at 16%, is one that has never bothered me; indeed, the acceptance that there are biological creatures which we have not yet found, categorized, and characterized is a good one for any society which needs to progress in the future in order to survive. A society which believes it knows everything it needs to know is doomed – at least in that form. It might even go extinct. That all evidence of Bigfoot has been discredited is probably a fact not known to the public that chooses to believe in the big guy.<\/p>\n

Fortune tellers & psychics, on the other hand, are well-known dangers to the naive person. Why? Because their advice may divert the trusting from a proper course of action, such as accepting a conventional course of treatment for an illness, for some course of treatment of no value – but perhaps benefiting the fortune teller. It appears some 19% of the American population remains credulous.<\/p>\n

At 25%, telekinesis is of limited danger. I can dream up some scenarios where someone might get hurt, but to tell the truth, I probably won’t value their contributions to society anyways, if they’re adults.<\/p>\n

The idea that aliens have visited Earth recently is, for me, at an unexpectedly low value of 25%. A physicist will give several reasons why it’s nearly impossible that it has happened, but I think hope springs eternal. The higher value for a visit in ancient times (35%) actually makes sense, given the unexpected achievements of Egypt and the various South American empires, not to mention the different span in time between ‘ancient’ and ‘recent’ – whatever that might be.<\/p>\n

However, the places haunted by spirits at 52% is discouraging, given that no one has ever captured any evidence of a spirit. Usually they are shown to be hoaxes or natural phenomena – yet we continue to give such stories credence.<\/p>\n

And at 55% is the contention that ancient ‘advanced’ civilizations once existed. I wonder about the reasoning behind this – that is, how many of those who assented to this question are simply trying to be open-minded? How many ran across such contentions in reading sensationalistic publications such as National Enquirer<\/strong><\/em>? And how many, disconcerted by the variety of human experience, would prefer to see current society as doomed to return to a simpler time, and in this question they see a way to confirm that such will happen.<\/p>\n

Perhaps I’m just a little cynical today.<\/p>\n

Finally, the survey notes that 25.3% have “no paranormal beliefs,” which I believe is a misstatement – properly, given the context of the table, those folks just don’t have any of the listed beliefs. I am uncertain as to whether I should be reassured or aghast.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I started this blog I did not anticipate it turning its focus on the political world to the extent that it has, but then I did not anticipate a Trump Presidency, and all the dangers that brings to our liberal democracy. I do tire of it. So when I \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13488","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13488","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13488"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13488\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13492,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13488\/revisions\/13492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13488"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13488"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13488"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}