My friend has a fire-breathing dragon. What should I do?

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.

Sounds like you have interesting friends.

I assume if its incorporeal and had no body, then your friend doesn't need a little tray or worry about yellowing grass stains on the lawn?

Presumably your friend can have lots more visitors over since pet dander won't be an issue either.

Vet bills would be minimal...so that's good.

You could take the dragon anywhere because really, who would notice???

All in all it sounds like the perfect pet!!

Perhaps you might want to think about getting one yourself. If you could successfully breed and sell the babies; I'm seeing big money in your future.

It might even be a bigger hit then the pet rock of the 70s.

:)

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.

Charge your friend $2350 to train the dragon in basic obedience, sniffing out drugs and corpses and to howl melodiously along with 'Bohemian Rhapsody'.

Guaranteed money back if you can prove that you are not satisfied.

Too many questions. The burden of proof is with your friend. Ask the friend for the extraordinary evidence to support the extraordinary claim. Until that is provided, you don't have to believe anything, but certainly keep an open mind, as usual.

Edit: still reading Sagan I see :)

YAY! I thought I was the only one who had one! Maybe ours can meet.It's hard to find a mate for an invisible fire breathing dragon. The best part is...no pooper scooper is needed.

Isn't it nice to have friends who make your life more exciting? Fantasy is FUN!

Give a pair of D20 dices to your friend and ask him to start fighting against his Dragon ;)

ahh...you see, just let him/her believe that it is there...but you don't have to, just dont hurt his/her feeling..but I think it's not real..If I may believe that dragons do exist..maybe as a visible one..maybe dragons are some just type of dinosaurs.........you 2 are just kid right?!