have you ever seen something weird

[Brian37]

That really can be anything(accept little green men).

Most of the time it is simply some sort of aircraft.

There was a case in Az that was reported by several people about "lights" in the sky a few years back. Again, I would never in good conscious fill that gap with green men woo.

And you can perpetrate a hoax and if cleaver enough do it on a huge scale.

Just like stage illusionists can get tons of stage hand or the audience in on the trick.

It still amounts to if you are stupid enough to fill in a gap because you don't know what naturally happened or know how a hoax was concocted, if you want to believe something badly enough, you will.

"Why People Believe Weird Things" by Michael Shermer is a book I intend to read at some point. Although I'd suspect it would not be anything new to me, even if still entertaining.

I do find how the human brain ticks fascinating. Knowing biology and psychology is important in knowing how our perceptions can be flawed.

Yeah, it's kind of funny the difference in the discussion that I had about the lights with my Atheist friends and with some other hippy types who were hanging out. If it was such an amazing contrast how we all looked for logical material explanations and the spiritual types thought it could be anything except those.

You know, even to our non Abrahamic friends here who call themselves spiritual, I really like to think that I am fair to everyone. I have gone after other stuff, such as si fi woo, and even blasted Sam Harris whom I love when he calls himself "spiritual".

One of my best experiences was the Unitarian Church I attended. It was right at at time when I was feeling like an outsider, and if you want to talk about a huge collection of oddballs, a UU church is a great example. We had every stripe of religion, and several atheists too. But still, as much as I loved them, It did not mean I liked everything they claimed.

My two deerest friends back then was an an old guy name Ben who served in Europe in WW2 as an atheist, he has passed away. And a Wiccan named Heather who has unfortunately died from cancer since, left 3 kids behind.

I have outgrown the need for that socializing, I get enough now at work, and even my believing co workers I love, but as will all believers and claims I find absurd, it still drives me nuts, even if I love the person or like the person.