Comments on: XFiles Friday: Believing men

By: Steven Carr

Steven Carr — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:14:42 +0000

Was Joseph Smith an eyewitness of Joseph Smith being given Golden Plates to translate?

By: Deacon Duncan

Deacon Duncan — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 13:08:38 +0000

Considering that “the supernatural,” in practice, works out to mean “that which cannot be verified by real world evidence,” I suppose that “anti-supernatural bias” is just a longer way of saying “not gullible.”

By: Arthur

Arthur — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:46:44 +0000

I’m sorry, but all of you will just have to throw up your hands and surrender to the charge of “anti-supernatural bias,” an absoluate gem which I’m going to start sprinkling into all of my conversations from now on. Atheism is dead. Pass the word to Pharyngula.

By: Crafty Witch

Crafty Witch — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 19:55:36 +0000

How many rape victims or victims of other crimes have been utterly convinced about the identity of their attacker only to be contradicted by the DNA evidence. Quite a few in recent years. It's not that the witnesses are lying; it's that their memories are incorrect. Perhaps this video will get the point across. There are two teams, one in black shirts and one in white. The players are passing basketballs back and forth. Your task is to pick a team and count how many times members of that team pass the ball between each other. Then rewatch the video. This time don't worry about the balls being passed, just pay attention to the big picture. Apparently it does make a different which team you track. Most of the sites where I've seen the video ask the viewer to watch the white team. The point is, a significant number of people miss the really oddball detail on the first viewing (no, I'm not saying what it is).

By: David D.G.

David D.G. — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 16:10:33 +0000

I wish I could rate this entry higher than a 5. Bravo!

~David D.G.

By: mike

mike — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:48:06 +0000

Every UFO abduction or Loch Ness Monster sighting has been reported by verifiable eyewitnesses. These eyewitnesses could most certainly describe the trivial details of the incident’s setting (the road they were driving on, the location on Loch Ness shore) and get them verifiably correct.

The unescapable fact here is that eyewitness testimony is so much farther from perfect than G&T are making it out to be.