My biggest frustration with this particular forum has to do both with the additudes of some of the "skeptics" and the lack of even an ATTEMPT by many of the believers to put their arguments into a concise and functional debate.
The quality of the posters on both sides leaves a lot to be desired, and no one can point a finger on any one side or the other in here for how rediculously devoid of intellectual discourse this particular forum is. I put blaim on the skeptics NOT because they do not demonstrate the tennants of rational thoughts (they do a FINE job making good points most often), but because of the arrogant and snide remarks they sometimes make negate any useful attempt to demonstrate the correct patterns of thinking and discussion we want the believers to use to explain their points. After all, no one wants to immitate in any way the behaviors of someone percieved as an arrogant snide. Furthermore it is a very dirty tactic to willfully, be it intentionally or not, anger an opponent and cloud his thoughts in order to provoke negative responses from him and then use those responses to discredit his case. Unfortunetly such tactics are common in politics and perhaps in our day and age of seeing them demonstrated all too often they have become normal behaviors. This is not a broad attack against skeptics. I have had good discussions in here with people like Hans and Skinwalker, but this is a reminder that for intellectual debate to prosper BOTH sides must maintain mutual respect, and those demanding more rational and clear thought from the believers crowd should model the behaviors they demand of their opponents.
By the same token, advocates of the paranormal are often so caught up in the excitement of what they believe that their emotional reaction to this in itself makes it difficult for them not to come off as dreamers, wishful thinkers, or worse, delusional. This in itself is the first turn-off to skeptics: emotional responses. Second, many advocates of the paranormal simply do not approach the skeptics in the rational, debate and prove style they are accustomed to. This yes, betrays that many believers of the paranormal do not have intensive backgrounds in science or even in academia. Believers are far more prone to releasing the conclusion and think that the skeptic will probably know what they are talking about, and then are honestly shocked when the "smart guy" doesn't have a clue what he is saying! This isn't entirely there fault either. Pick up any good book on science as well, and you will find that it doesn't really teach you how science works, but in most cases only the conclusions that scientists have come to. If the book says that Alpha Centauri is 4 light years away or so, it doesn't tell you that we know this because we know what the speed of light is and we can determine it's distance with a parallax. It only gives you cut in dry, in the end, what the conclusions are. Applied to paranormal phenomenon, the layman who picks up someone's book about UFO's or Bigfoot doesn't have a clue HOW in many cases the paranormal investigator came to the conclusions he did, but rather the conclusions that the person gives them.
This forum is the OPTIMUM place to model out and truly teach how to use the scientific method, but the skeptics are falling down on the job and laypeople have become so set against them this is difficult. After all, if trying to get other people to see your point of view is NOT the point of posting here, what is? It is just that in this particular forum, more effort is required. It is an effort I have many times tried to give, and yes in some peoples minds I might not be the qualified teacher, but I don't see anyone else really trying either.
You can bitch about how sloppy someone else thinks, or you can model for them how to think rationally. I choose the ladder.
In fact I find all the sub-forums under "subculture" funny! Just wanted to know if I was the only one?
