Here’s the thing, if ghost hunters want to be taken
seriously, if they want the legitimacy found under the umbrella of science then
some things need to be done.
This evening I was watching a show about people’s ghost
stories. I don’t like to mention names, but you won’t see my ghost story there. One story was concerning the Bird Cage
Theater in Tombstone, AZ. Now I have seen shows where many of these stories
were told to visiting hunters. After some exploration and critical thinking the
cause is determined to not be paranormal. How, then, should I feel when, years
later, I see the previously debunked story passed along as unexplained
phenomenon?
There are too many people that still doubt science, in spite
of hundreds of years of valid, verified knowledge gained and tested using the scientific
method. There are people that seem to believe that if they can’t understand,
then God can’t. This is not new, in fact the systematic evaluation of the world
around us has only ascended in the past hundred years or so. It took brilliant
people, committed to the goal of understanding the universe, to get this far.
Further, for every brilliant household name there are thousands of others that
helped record and systematize the information gathered. Science is, at its
core, observing and recording information long enough for patterns to be seen,
explanations put forward, and, most importantly, predictions to be made. If the
predictions are correct over an extended period of time, a theory is put forth.
Many things will remain a theory forever because they can’t be proven (how can
you prove dinosaurs were killed 65 million years ago without a time machine?),
but they fit what we see perfectly. Also, science is self-correcting; if the
theory works a million times, bit not a million and one, it’s tossed out or
modified.
So what needs to be done?
A national, or international, society needs to be created
with the expressed purpose of recording and validating the phenomena AND the
explanations if they meet the standard created and adopted by the society. I
accept the phenomenon will not be tested in controlled lab experiments; that
means the other tools of the scientific method must be even more assiduously
applied, consensus and transparency must be the rule. The standards must be
published and adhered to by all society members, members must be publicly
admonished if standards aren't being maintained. Finally, any member using the
words “orb” and “paranormal” in the same sentence should be put in the rack.
No comments:
Post a Comment