Skeptic Says Show Me The Evidence
Mystic ? When it comes to reports of ghosts on the Charles W. Morgan, Mystic Seaport's famed whaling ship, Michael Shermer is not a believer.
It's not just because the author and founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine doesn't believe in ghosts; it's because, he says, there is no scientific data or proof that after death a person's energy leaves his body and becomes what people know as ghosts.
?It may be true, but we just don't have evidence,? he said. ?The best position to take on the afterlife is agnostic ?? we just don't know,? he told about 60 people gathered Monday night in the maritime museum's Greenmanville Church.
The museum invited Shermer, who hosts the show ?Exploring the Unknown? on the Fox Family Channel, to provide another perspective to claims made by the Rhode Island Paranormal Research Group that its investigation of the ship shows evidence of paranormal activity.
The group investigated the ship earlier this year after several visitors reported seeing a man dressed in 19th century clothing working below deck. He nodded, they claimed, but did not speak. When they asked museum staffers what the man was doing, they were told no one was down below.
The story brought a great deal of national media attention for the museum.
Museum Publicist Michael O'Farrell introduced Shermer on Monday night by saying that the museum has never promoted the Morgan as a ?ghost ship,? but hoped to tell visitors its real stories when they arrived.
?It's been our goal to bring in an opinion from the other side to balance out the story,? he said.
That opinion came from Shermer, director of the California-based Skeptics Society, a group that conducts scientific investigations into controversial claims about subjects such as UFOs, alien abductions, intelligent design and alternative medicine.
Shermer mixed scientific studies, humor, photographs and video during a 90-minute presentation called ?Why People Believe Weird Things,? which is also the topic of one of his books.
He said that by using science, people can begin with mundane, natural explanations for things before leaping to explanations that have no scientific basis.
?Before we say it's out of this world, let's make sure it's not in this world,? he said. ?Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.?
Shermer talked about ways the brain can be made to experience or believe things that just aren't true, citing factors such as lack of sleep, prior suggestions and electromagnetic pulses. Those with more creative imaginations can have even more vivid experiences, he said.
Shermer said a relatively common ailment known as sleep paralysis results in many of the same experiences reported by people who claim to have been abducted by aliens. Even Shermer said he was convinced he had been taken away by aliens, when he went days without sleep during a cross country bike race. He realized it was all in his head because his support crew had been alongside him the whole time.
Shermer showed photographs of unexplained occurrences such as apparitions of the Virgin Mary, a ?face? on Mars and claims that a UFO crashed in Roswell, N.M., all of which he said ended up having scientific explanations.
He said if ghosts do exist, there would be deep implications concerning what people believe about religion and what happens to people after they die.
Before his talk, Shermer toured the Morgan for about 45 minutes. He said that when people come on the ship to investigate paranormal activity they already have an expectation of finding something, which can influence what they find.
He said even if the paranormal group detected certain electromagnetic readings, he questioned their scientific methods. For example, what are the readings normally, and aboard other ships?
?I'm told the paranormal group detected this and that. They detected interesting readings. So what?? he said. ?You have to have controls and data.?
?I don't know what to make of these stories,? Shermer said about the Morgan.
?We always want to have the answers. It's OK, though, to live life with a certain level of ambiguity.?
http://www.theday.com/re.aspx?re=4b4bf2 ... 6abb90a494
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
