Would they hire a skeptic?

We had a skeptic for ages as part of our investigation team --- he never saw anything which brings me to question the observer effect and how it applies to the paranormal. He left the group as he was board - but i swear when he was not around things sometimes would go crazy. He dearly wanted to be there when these things would happen - but never once was present when we would document things. It made him mad and he asked the same question - why does nothing happen when i am there as answered before. I discussed this here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AvTg4...

I think there is nothing wrong with being a skeptic as long as you are a rational skeptic, some skeptics are as irrational as the paranormal people you see making equally bizzaro claims and are as guilty of making it up as they go along as the paranormal people. Reality can catch both sides of the equation looking like fools when the answer is known!

Let me give you an example. We do a UFO Contest each year to get forensical data to do analysis on images and video to detect fakes. Back in 2007 we had an entry to fake a triangle type UFO. Someone took this video and circulated it without audio. (and no we had no part in this!)

http://www.realufos.net/2008/10/irish-triangle-ufo...

We had to go on C2Cam to stop all the chaos. This is the original clip:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids....

Comments made on sites and in the media:

Believers:

Anonymous said...

here it is guys, some undenieable ****...

Anonymous said...

this vid really rocks!

fantastic, and is not a fake.

The skeptics said:

The Irish 'UFO?" is actually, the US Militrary TR-3B or an advanced model.

Anonymous said...

This is obviously a weather balloon or a helicopter. It is most obvious given the red lights, and the angle of the camera. it just looks odd because of the angle it is fimed at. the object in question is most likely a helicopter, or a jet on approach to Dublin Airport. Aliens do not exist, and this kind of craft simply does not exist.

I watched skeptics who said they were professional video experts go on the record as saying this was a helicopter and i saw MUFON video experts go on ethe record and say this was 100% a real UFO.

What i am saying here is that equally the skeptics and believers acted like fools when presented with something real and all came to the wrong conclusion. The middle is a better option.... both sides showed how narrow minded they were and made their conclusions based on their OPINIONS looking like fools.

If you bring balance and not bias to an investigation - then you lend something valuable and a lot of the investigations watch could benefit from this. BUT.... these cable tv shows are entertaining and maybe they can only survive by being outragious and weak on science as true video investigation is watching 99% of the time for nothing to happen and 1% when something amazing happens and if you are lucky --- your instruments are in the right place to document the occurances.

mobius

Most of these shows are made for a reason. This type is to cater for the believers. The viewing figures are needed usually to get the advertising and to sell the program. If they cater for the skeptic they will probably not sell the program as well and viewing figures will drop.

This is nothing to do with skeptics, its commercial.

No, they don't bother hiring skeptics or real scientists because they don't think we're any fun. We tend to point out rational reasons for things being the way they are. It's far more fun to not understand basic physics when you're looking for ghosts. Although the only person I know of who actually makes a living investigating this stuff is a skeptic (Joe Nickel).

It depends, if you were a skeptic like Joe Nickell, they wouldn't let you anywhere near their set. If they thought you had some shtick, and would go along or be easily fooled. They just might hire you.

If your being open to receive, why would you want a skeptic around? Perhaps he would died of a heart attack if the skeptic did see a ghost, or then become a believer.

No I doubt it.

To do so will kill the $$ hype $$ they're on. They want everything to be in their favor and unchallenged.