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Monsters, Ghosts and Gods: Why We Believe
2008-08-18
Monsters are everywhere these days, and belief in them is as strong as ever. What's harder to believe is why so many people buy into hazy evidence, shady schemes and downright false reports that perpetuate myths that often have just one ultimate truth: They put money in the pockets of their purveyors. Muzi.com News 10076675-0 (muzi.com) The bottom line, according to several interviews with people who study these things: People want to believe, and most simply can't help it. Muzi.com News 10076675-1 (muzi.com) "Many people quite simply just want to believe," said Brian Cronk, a professor of psychology at Missouri Western State University. "The human brain is always trying to determine why things happen, and when the reason is not clear, we tend to make up some pretty bizarre explanations." Muzi.com News 10076675-2 (muzi.com) A related question: Does belief in the paranormal have anything to do with religious belief? Muzi.com News 10076675-3 (muzi.com) The answer to that question is decidedly nuanced, but studies point to an interesting conclusion: People who practice religion are typically encouraged not to believe in the paranormal, but rather to put their faith in one deity, whereas those who aren't particularly active in religion are more free to believe in Bigfoot or consult a psychic. Muzi.com News 10076675-4 (muzi.com) "Christians and New Agers, paranormalists, etc. all have one thing in common: a spiritual orientation to the world," said sociology Professor Carson Mencken of Baylor University. Muzi.com News 10076675-5 (muzi.com) Tall tales Muzi.com News 10076675-6 (muzi.com) A tale last week by three men who said they have remains of Bigfoot in a freezer was reported by many Web sites as anywhere from final proof of the creature to at least a very compelling case to keep the fantasy ball rolling and cash registers ringing for Bigfoot trinkets and tourism (all three men involved make money off the belief in this creature). Even mainstream media treated a Friday press conference about the "finding" as news. Muzi.com News 10076675-7 (muzi.com) Reactions by the public ranged from skeptical curiosity to blind faith. Muzi.com News 10076675-8 (muzi.com) "I believe they do exist but I'm not sure about this," said one reader reacting to a story on LiveScience that cast doubt the claim. "I guess we will find out ... if this is on the up and up," wrote another. "However, that said, I know they exist." Muzi.com News 10076675-9 (muzi.com) A subsequent test on the supposed Bigfoot found nothing but the DNA of humans and an opossum, a small, cat-like creature. Muzi.com News 10076675-10 (muzi.com) Also last week, in Texas there was yet another sensational yet debunkable sighting of chupacabra, a beast of Latin-American folklore. The name means "goat sucker." In this case, law enforcement bought into the hooey with an apparent wink and nod. Muzi.com News 10076675-11 (muzi.com) Ellie Carter, a patrol trainee with the DeWitt County sheriff's office, saw the beast and was, of course, widely quoted. "It was this - thing, looking right at us," she said. "I think that's a chupacabra!" After watching a video of the beast taken by a sheriff's deputy, biologist Scott Henke of Texas A&M University said, "It's a dog for sure," according to a story on Scientific American's Web site. Muzi.com News 10076675-12 (muzi.com) Meanwhile, the sheriff did nothing to tamp down rampant speculation, expressing delight that he might have a monster on his hands. "I love this for DeWitt County," said Sheriff Jode Zavesky, who would presumably be just as thrilled to let Dracula or a werewolf run free. Muzi.com News 10076675-13 (muzi.com) With that kind of endorsement and the human propensity to believe in just about anything, it's clear that Bigfoot and chupacabra are just two members in a cast of mythical characters and dubious legends and ideas will likely never go away. Muzi.com News 10076675-14 (muzi.com) In a 2006 study, researchers found a surprising number of college students believe in psychics, witches, telepathy, channeling and a host of other questionable ideas. A full 40 percent said they believe houses can be haunted. Muzi.com News 10076675-15 (muzi.com) Why are people so eager to accept flimsy and fabricated evidence in support of unlikely and even outlandish creatures and ideas? Why is the paranormal realm, from psychic predictions to UFO sightings, so alluring to so many? Muzi.com News 10076675-16 (muzi.com) The gods must be crazy Muzi.com News 10076675-17 (muzi.com) Since people have been people, experts figure, they have believed in the supernatural, from gods to ghosts and now every sort of monster in between. Muzi.com News 10076675-18 (muzi.com) "While it is difficult to know for certain, the tendency to believe in the paranormal appears to be there from the beginning," explained Christopher Bader, a Baylor sociologist and colleague of Mencken. "What changes is the content of the paranormal. For example, very few people believe in faeries and elves these days. But as belief in faeries faded, other beliefs, such as belief in UFOs, emerged to take their place." Muzi.com News 10076675-19 (muzi.com) Figuring out why people are this way is a little trickier. Muzi.com News 10076675-20 (muzi.com) "It is an artifact of our brain's desire to find cause and effect," Cronk, the psychology professor, said in an email interview. "That ability to predict the future is what makes humans 'smart' but it also has side effects like superstitions [and] belief in the paranormal." Muzi.com News 10076675-21 (muzi.com) "Humans first started believing in the supernatural because they were trying to understand things they couldn't explain," says Benjamin Radford, a book author, paranormal investigator and managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine. "It's basically the same process as mythology: At one point people didn't understand why the sun rose and set each day, so they suggested that a chariot pulled the sun across the heavens." Muzi.com News 10076675-22 (muzi.com) Before modern scientific explanations of germ theory, explained Radford, who writes the "Bad Science" column for LiveScience, people didn't understand how diseases could travel from one person to another. "They didn't understand why a child was stillborn, or why a drought occurred, so they came to believe that such events had supernatural causes," he said. Muzi.com News 10076675-23 (muzi.com) "All societies have invoked the supernatural to explain things beyond their control and understanding, especially good and bad events," Radford said. "In many places - even today - people believe that disasters or bad luck is caused by witches or curses." Muzi.com News 10076675-24 (muzi.com) Which raises the bigger question: With science having answered so many questions in the past couple centuries, why do paranormal beliefs remain so strong? Muzi.com News 10076675-25 (muzi.com) Related to religion? Muzi.com News 10076675-26 (muzi.com) Sometimes the belief in curses crosses paths with religion, as was the case in 2005 when televangelist John Hagee (whose endorsement was solicited and received by presidential hopeful John McCain) blamed Hurricane Katrina on God's wrath for a gay parade that had been scheduled for the Monday of the storm's arrival. Muzi.com News 10076675-27 (muzi.com) "I believe that New Orleans had a level of sin that was offensive to God, and they are - were recipients of the judgment of God for that," Hagee said at the time, reiterating the belief in 2006. Muzi.com News 10076675-28 (muzi.com) That might lead one to assume religion and paranormal beliefs are intertwined. Muzi.com News 10076675-29 (muzi.com) But in a 2004 survey, at the researchers at Baylor found just the opposite. Muzi.com News 10076675-30 (muzi.com) "Paranormal beliefs are very strongly negatively related to religious belief," study team member Rod Stark said this week. Muzi.com News 10076675-31 (muzi.com) Another study, of 391 U.S. college students done in 2000, found that participants who did not believe in Protestant doctrine were most likely to believe in reincarnation, contact with the dead, UFOs, telepathy, prophecy, psychokinesis, or healing. Believers were the least likely to buy into the paranormal. "This may partly reflect opinions of Christians in the samples who take biblical sanctions against many 'paranormal' activities seriously," the Wheaton College researchers wrote. Muzi.com News 10076675-32 (muzi.com) Cronk, the psychologist, did a small survey of 80 college students and found no connection between religiosity and paranormal belief. Muzi.com News 10076675-33 (muzi.com) But a 2002 study in Canada did find a correlation between religious beliefs and paranormal beliefs, Cronk notes. He figures that among other explanations, Canadians may not have the same belief systems as U.S. residents. Muzi.com News 10076675-34 (muzi.com) "My guess is that religiosity has a lot to do with how you were raised, and less to do with genetics," Cronk said. "Those people who may have a high genetic susceptibility to 'faith-based knowledge' may end up being highly religious or may end up having belief in the paranormal depending on how they were raised. Those people less susceptible to that method of forming beliefs may still end up being highly religious if they were raised in a religious family." Muzi.com News 10076675-35 (muzi.com) Religion vs. paranormal Muzi.com News 10076675-36 (muzi.com) Mencken, the Baylor sociologist, says sacrifice and stigma (for holding ideas outside the group norm) keep the paranormal at bay among the highly religious. He has two papers forthcoming that are based on a national survey of 1,700 people. Muzi.com News 10076675-37 (muzi.com) The first, to be published in the journal Sociology of Religion in 2009, reveals this: Muzi.com News 10076675-38 (muzi.com) "Among Christians, those who attend church very often (and are exposed to stigma and sacrifice within their congregations) are least likely to believe in the paranormal," Mencken told LiveScience. "Conversely, those Christians who do not attend church very often (maybe once or twice a year) are the most likely to hold paranormal beliefs." Muzi.com News 10076675-39 (muzi.com)
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