My friend has a fire-breathing dragon. What should I do?
Friend: I have a fire-breathing dragon. Me: OK, show me. Friend: Well I can't. You see, she's invisible. Me: Perhaps we can spread flour on the ground so we can see her footprints. Friend: Oh, she doesn't walk. She floats. Me: OK, how about if we get a thermal camera. Friend: She doesn't give off heat. Not even the fire she breathes. Me: Fine. We'll sprinkle water on her so we can see it run off her body. Friend: Yeah, well she's incorporeal. She has no body. Me: So what's the difference between a floating, incorporeal, heatless dragon and no dragon at all? Friend: But she's there. I see her. I'm certain of it. There have been a lot of stories of dragons throughout history and across different cultures. They're in tapestries and paintings. How can you assert my dragon may not be real?
Am I being closed minded in thinking this dragon may not really exist? Does anyone believe my friend? Would it be responsible of me to believe my friend based on no evidence, on nothing but his say so? Is it possible there is no dragon at all? Are claims which cannot be tested and assertions that are immune to disproof worth anything?
Thoughts?
expatpaul2009-05-13T00:14:32Z
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Obviously, your story is allegorical.
In essence, you're asking:why do people continue believe in things that cannot be seen or objectively proved based on common data points accessible and obvious to all.
Why must they rely on faith, credulity and wishful thinking to validate their beliefs? Too often,the belief is what they need, not the validation.
The Greeks accepted both reason and belief as valid elements of knowledge.They knew that one must have belief in possibilities in order to imagine and anticipate results.But they also knew that they mustbe intellectually disciplined to objectively examine belief by consistent methods, standards and principles, based on what is known to validate them.
In other words,an open mind must always believe in possibilities; but a disciplined mind bases belief on consistent standards of proof and logic.
No, it's not true. I used to live in Siberia (Amur Oblast to be exact) and there are no fire breathing anything. There aren't even very many reptiles of the non-fire-breathing variety (the summers can be quite warm in some places but there is a reason that Siberia is known for it cold winters). I went hiking in the hills, read about the area quite a lot, read the local and national papers and went to the Oblast museum which has a large natural history section, complete with taxidermic examples of the regions fauna, none of which were fire breathing. Siberia does have tigers though, and the musk deer (look it up) which looks like a small regular deer but with fangs like a saber toothed tiger. Still, don’t be too hard on this guy. He is obviously lonely and looking for something to make himself interesting. Try being friendly to him and he might turn out to be a really cool guy in his own right. Or maybe he won’t, but at least you can have pride in yourself that you are an honorable person that doesn’t make others feel bad just because you can.
If your friend is a hardcore believer, they wont change their mind. This is why its pointless for science to provide proof that paranormal claims are not real. People will believe anyway. Over and over and over proof has been provided that paranormal claims like ouija boards, Reiki, and remote viewing are completely not real. People can even repeat experiments at home which prove these claims are false. However, people who want to believe just completely ignore the real evidence and look at testimonials and fool themselves into believing they are real. If science proved without a doubt that the dragon is not real, it wouldn't make a difference. Believers are too closed minded to consider the possibility. If science proved that it is real, then skeptics would probably try to repeat the experiments in disbelief, but in the end, skeptics and other science minded people would accept that there is a race of invisible dragons living amongst us.
I'm assuming your friend is a he. Woman I think are more likely to have unicorns. As most (I hope) people would, you may doubt the dragons existence. What you can't do is express those doubts to your friend. The right thing to do get him help as he may be delusional. In the world of the paranormal that's considered mean. He has a right to his beliefs. Even at the risk of psychological damage. Even if he's lying,making up the story for attention. Still, you must keep quiet. It would be "hate speech" to confront him. What I would do is express doubts to other friends. Most importantly, the ones likely to believe him.