A call to humility

I have heard many, many tales of evidence of the supernatural - phenomena that defy any rational or known scientific explanation.  I myself have had experiences which I cannot adequately explain, and which could easily be used as evidence of spiritual forces beyond what is known or provable.  Many of the people who believe seem very sure, even adamant at times, of the validity of their beliefs.

But conviction is often nothing more than the inability to consider alternatives, and those who argue with such passion for their conviction often are unwilling to truly entertain the possibility that they might be wrong, that there may be a much simpler explanation for what they have experienced than the existence of spiritual forces.

The world seems to consist of two kinds of people - those who tend to accept personal experience as significant evidence of forces beyond the obvious, and those who prefer to stick to what is proven, scientific, or rational.

The world is full of mysteries that have not been solved, at least not to everyone's satisfaction.  From conspiracy theories to the existence of God to the belief that eating certain foods will cure cancer or that recycling will stop Greenland from melting, there are those who seem to want to believe in a world where special, exciting, extraordinary things can happen, and there are those who seem to find comfort in only accepting things that have rational, provable or at least likely explanations, and consigning everything else to coincidence or foolishness.

Extraordinary claims, in my mind, deserve a lot of respect. It is an all too common human fallacy to throw out inexplicable phenomena because it doesn't fit in with what we have already decided is true.  The examples of conventional wisdom that turned out to be untrue are numerous.  To keep an open mind means to consider everything, and to be very aware of the assumptions we carry that may cause us to discount beliefs that don't fit our comfort level.

But the flip side is also important to consider. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and it is definitely more exciting for many to live in a world of angels and demons and conspiracies and dark forces, than one that always consistently follows the laws of physics.  Why else would sci fi and fantasy literature and games be so popular, if we did not find them exciting?  That tendency can slant us towards believing something that we otherwise might dismiss.

In the end, humility is called for, both in skeptics as well as believers. It is a huge mysterious world, and none of us know it all. The conviction that the mystical is impossible, like the conviction that it is real, may be nothing more than the inability, or the unwillingness, to consider alternatives.