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    What Hitch Taught Me
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    Ghosts, Goblins,Bigfoot and Skeptics


    Created on Thursday, June 25, 2009        Bookmark and Share

    Home -> Blog -> 2009 -> June


    I came across this article today (completely safe for work) - link.

    As many of you know I am first and foremost a skeptic. It isn't that I want to disprove everything. I just want reasonable proof. It has been quite a while since I have given up my belief in things like ghosts (read more here) and this article is a great example of why.

    In a nutshell, the author said he had an impromptu conversation with a Japanese gentleman. It turns out that in Japan they see their ghosts in a different way than we do. Their ghosts are legless and often have chains coming out of them. That's right - these kinds of beliefs are often cultural.

    We are pattern-seeking mammals. We have expectations for what is possible for us to "see" and often times a desire to see it. Believing is often seeing.

    Consider the following:

    - Our impression of UFO's have changed over the years based on the technology of the time and also pop culture. Five hundred years ago our ancestors thought they saw flying wooden chariots in the sky.
    - Our ancestors used to see goblins as part of their existence. Every culture had their own set of monsters that they would sometimes "see". Bigfoot is a great example of this kind of creature.
    - Nobody sees Muhammed in our country and nobody sees Jesus in Iran (and no, this is not a commentary on their existence).

    In the end I don't think it is hard to figure out if some of this stuff exists. We don't need to look outward, we need to look backwards to see how these beliefs came about.






    Thoughts on Jacko   More in JUNE   A Moral Conundrum

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