Post by José on Nov 4, 2015 22:17:16 GMT
Smart people Who Believe Weird Things
As pattern-seeking humans, we are knowingly or unknowingly, big fans of Apophenia/Patternicity. We create something out of nothing. Then we believe it whole-heartedly, as is the case with paranormal activity or paranormal events. Even amongst the educated, there are believers in the paranormal, which has the scientific community puzzled. One such event that has Scientist and paranormal believers debating back and forth is the area known as The Bermuda Triangle.
Physically, The Bermuda Triangle is an area that extends on the western part of the Atlantic Ocean. It stretches from the Eastern coast of FL, to the Bermuda Island, down to Puerto Rico and back up North to the South East tip of FL, through the Bahamas. This area is infamous for its pattern of ships and planes disappearing, without any solid evidence for the disappearance.
According to most research done on the Bermuda Triangle, its first recorded report was in 1942. On Christopher Columbus’ voyage to discover the New World, he and his crew saw a strange light going up and down in this area. There are several theories or perspectives as to why these ships or planes have disappeared in this area. Lets begin with the paranormal views. One theory that exists is regarding Aliens. The theory that they were abducted by aliens, who have a base in the triangle. Another theory is the theory of the City of Atlantis. In his book “The Bermuda Triangle”, Charles Berlitz proposed a theory of the mystical city of Atlantis residing at the bottom of the triangle. Using its ‘crystal energies’ to sink down planes and ships. Another theory, which isn’t as popular, is the idea of Sea Monsters. I’m guessing it’s not as popular, because believing in a sea monster, would mean that I believed in Superman too. And finally there have been a few reports of loss of time. In other words these ships and planes got lost in a time warp, similar to Marty McFly in Back to the Future.
Because there is no factual evidence to explain the disappearance of these ships and planes, the above theories were created. However based on research and missions to gather facts on their disappearance, several rational explanations evolved. The first, this area of the ocean holds one of the deepest areas. Deep sea waters are notoriously dangerous for creating whirlpools that can pull a ship underwater. The second, is pockets of methane gas that suddenly rush to the surface like a big bubble and erupt, causing a ship to turn over and sink. Another explanation that emerged was simply the idea of pirates, which were very popular during the time of disappearance of these ships. The last two explanations are the most popular. These two are more likely the explanation for the disappearance (other than human error); first is the rogue waves that are created in the deep area of the Atlantic and finally the second is that these constant warm waters create sudden waterspouts, tornadoes, water cyclones and hurricanes. Waterspouts disappear as quickly as they appeared out of nowhere.
I think its human nature to search for answers. Whether it’s God or a book of research at the library. We search for answers to questions that are not easily answered. By the time we conduct our research, many of us have already made up our minds on which way we are going to rout our beliefs. Even after conducting some research on the Bermuda Triangle, I don’t know that I would feel safe flying through there. Even though the Rational explanations given make more sense. Then again, I am skeptical about many things, but only because I myself haven’t done the research. Michael Shermer, Editor in Chief of the magazine Skeptic, said “Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons.”
As pattern-seeking humans, we are knowingly or unknowingly, big fans of Apophenia/Patternicity. We create something out of nothing. Then we believe it whole-heartedly, as is the case with paranormal activity or paranormal events. Even amongst the educated, there are believers in the paranormal, which has the scientific community puzzled. One such event that has Scientist and paranormal believers debating back and forth is the area known as The Bermuda Triangle.
Physically, The Bermuda Triangle is an area that extends on the western part of the Atlantic Ocean. It stretches from the Eastern coast of FL, to the Bermuda Island, down to Puerto Rico and back up North to the South East tip of FL, through the Bahamas. This area is infamous for its pattern of ships and planes disappearing, without any solid evidence for the disappearance.
According to most research done on the Bermuda Triangle, its first recorded report was in 1942. On Christopher Columbus’ voyage to discover the New World, he and his crew saw a strange light going up and down in this area. There are several theories or perspectives as to why these ships or planes have disappeared in this area. Lets begin with the paranormal views. One theory that exists is regarding Aliens. The theory that they were abducted by aliens, who have a base in the triangle. Another theory is the theory of the City of Atlantis. In his book “The Bermuda Triangle”, Charles Berlitz proposed a theory of the mystical city of Atlantis residing at the bottom of the triangle. Using its ‘crystal energies’ to sink down planes and ships. Another theory, which isn’t as popular, is the idea of Sea Monsters. I’m guessing it’s not as popular, because believing in a sea monster, would mean that I believed in Superman too. And finally there have been a few reports of loss of time. In other words these ships and planes got lost in a time warp, similar to Marty McFly in Back to the Future.
Because there is no factual evidence to explain the disappearance of these ships and planes, the above theories were created. However based on research and missions to gather facts on their disappearance, several rational explanations evolved. The first, this area of the ocean holds one of the deepest areas. Deep sea waters are notoriously dangerous for creating whirlpools that can pull a ship underwater. The second, is pockets of methane gas that suddenly rush to the surface like a big bubble and erupt, causing a ship to turn over and sink. Another explanation that emerged was simply the idea of pirates, which were very popular during the time of disappearance of these ships. The last two explanations are the most popular. These two are more likely the explanation for the disappearance (other than human error); first is the rogue waves that are created in the deep area of the Atlantic and finally the second is that these constant warm waters create sudden waterspouts, tornadoes, water cyclones and hurricanes. Waterspouts disappear as quickly as they appeared out of nowhere.
I think its human nature to search for answers. Whether it’s God or a book of research at the library. We search for answers to questions that are not easily answered. By the time we conduct our research, many of us have already made up our minds on which way we are going to rout our beliefs. Even after conducting some research on the Bermuda Triangle, I don’t know that I would feel safe flying through there. Even though the Rational explanations given make more sense. Then again, I am skeptical about many things, but only because I myself haven’t done the research. Michael Shermer, Editor in Chief of the magazine Skeptic, said “Smart people believe weird things because they are skilled at defending beliefs they arrived at for non-smart reasons.”