Are you a skeptic?

Question

What do you think is real and what is fake? For example: Lochness Monster, Bermuda Triangle, Big Foot & UFO's...e.t.c

Answer 1

Loch Ness - Undetermined. It may be a physical creature or a hoax
Bermuda Triangle - REAL- There really is a territory between Bermuda, Bahamas and Florida where ships have sunk
Big Foot - Likely false, but undetermned. There is a lot of country out there yet
UFO- TRUE- People really see things that not explained.

Answer 2

No I actually call myself a neutral..... I dont believe in anything, and I dont disbelieve in anything unless and until it is proven scientifically.
Loch ness monster.. I dont know until it is proven however evidence to date is shaky at best but I keep an open mind and dont discount the possibility.

Bermuda Triangle... well after seeing the scientifically backed explanation of methane gas deposits being the culprit I am inclined to believe that is where all the supernatural accounts stem from. The proved scientifically that the sea floor beneath the triangle is riddled with deposits of methane gas, they also proved that a large bubble of methane is capable of sinking a very large ship in a very short time because the bubbles make the water less dense and decrease buoyancy, they also proved that the methane gas rising into the air can cause the engines of planes to stall and therefore crash, also the footage of a methane bubble nearly sinking a giant oil rig in the triangle pretty much convinced me that methane really is the explanation for the reputation of the so-called Bermuda Triangle.

Big foot, well despite all of the hoaxes I do think the sasquatch could potentially exist in places where humans dont live, however I remain undecided until concrete evidence has been gathered on the subject. However the possibility does remain and is reinforced by discoveries of creatures we thought didnt exist but actually do like the giant squid.

UFOs well there are unidentified objects that have been caught on film or seen by millions of people but people are susceptible to suggestion and it could be that many ufos can be explained by conventional means. That doesnt discount the possibility of actual alien spacecraft and I find it very hard to discount the possibility of other life when our universe is so infinite. I dont know if there are actual alien spacecraft visiting our planet but I think that it is possible, I wont believe it until I see it for myself though or once again until concrete evidence is found.

Answer 3

I'm an open minded skeptic, unlike most skeptics, who are just the outspoken inquisition for scientific materialism.

While I don't belive everything that gets handed to me, I don't necessarily rule it out automatically as impossible. The word impossible and coincidence is the mantra of the closed minded skeptic.

UFO's, unidentified flying objects, yes. Craft of the space brothers, doubtful.

Loch Ness monster. Doubful, nothing has been substantiated, bu there might be something out there, though it's more likely sturgeon sighting.

Bermuda Triangle, more super-hype than supernatural, and from all the claimed disappearances, more like a large blob than a triangle.

Big Foot, not much substantial out of the great northwest, but the area is rugged enough to hide something, there have een some interesting findings of unknown primates in the rainforest like valleys of the himalaya mountains.

I'm interested in someone actually investigating the ruins off of Cuba, underwater, and may have been built during the last ice age, but no-one seems too interested in investigating some things, since a sophisticated culture during the ice age, would destroy the accepted timeline of human history, since by that timeline, at that time, man is supposed to be wandering tribes of hunters.

Answer 4

Yes but an open minded one.


Atlantis - True (but a bronze age civilisation on an island in the med)

Loch Ness monster - Doubtful

Bermuda Triangle - more hype than mystery

Big Foot - Likely that there are undiscovered primates in the Himalayas and maybe in North America

Giant Squid - True

UFO's - Not alien spacecraft. Last strange v shaped flying object I saw was an owl.

Ghosts - Too many reports to ignore

Mermaids - no. But manatees yes

Crop Circles - man made

Answer 5

The only thing that's real is the Bermuda Triangle. All it is is a geographical area which has been hyped up as a legendary place where people, aircraft, and surface vessels which supposedly vanished under mysterious circumstances, often involving the paranormal, a suspension of the laws of physics, or activity by extraterrestrial beings.

New theories blame large methane bubbles for capsizing ships, and causing pilots to dive into the ocean because the altimeter is tricked by the odorless, lighter than air, gas which makes the pilot think he's actually climbing when in fact the plane is descending.

Answer 6

Being a skeptic simply means when someone makes a claim that conflicts with the natural world as we know it (such as your examples above) you respond, "that's interesting, can you prove it?"

All of your examples (and most similar claims) have little or no concrete evidence to be verified (unless using the proper definition of a UFO - in this case all of us can see things that we cannot identify - but this is not how most people interpret the term) and many have evidence COUNTER to the claim:

For instance, the Bermuda Triangle's reputation is completely unearned; not only have all of the "mysterious" disappearances been explained by more mundane means, there are actually FEWER lost ships/etc. in this area than there should be relative to its traffic! (It should be called "The NON-Bermuda Triangle)

Keep in mind also that an "eyewitness account" is NOT evidence: our senses can be easily fooled, we can be influenced by prior knowledge, etc. Further, our memories are pretty fallible too, we can mis-interpret what we see, memories can "evolve" over time as we add/omit particulars (through other's stories or our own imagination)

Anyone may claim supernatural phenomena, but most often it is simply natural phenomena that they can't currently explain.

Answer 7

Some things are really weird sounding and I think they're fake. But creatures such as the Lochness Monster, Bigfoot, Yeti and such could be real, maybe just less exaggerated then they are in the media. For example- bigfoot could be a relative of gorilla like primates, Lochness could be a descendant of dinosaurs, and a Yeti could be some other arctic creature. I think people need to stop blowing these things off as fake and more research should be done to prove them real or fake.

Answer 8

It's a bit like religion - you can't really prove or disprove so it all comes down to faith in something. Either faith that it exists or faith that it doesn't.

I'm a skeptic but my new years resolution is to try to be more open minded and positive. I've been really depressed this past year and I think it's because I don't believe in alot of things. Once you lose interest in life and become a stuffy old person, life gets very depressing.

So hey...... why not leave open the door of possibility that these things just might have a snowflakes chance in hell of existing?

That's my new positive spin!


edit to Holy Zero (below me) - I think this is actually how he said it. '..belief is the death of intelligence.' I know because it's my favourite quote ever!

Answer 9

I consider myself a realist, but I also believe in Chinese Astrology, ghosts, soul mates, psychic phenomena, and a higher power.
So though i may hold off on believing things right away, if there is no answer one way or the other i will definitely consider the less realistic possibility.
So yes I'm skeptical, but apparently not overly so.
Like they say, there are no athiests when the bullets start flying.

Answer 10

considering the topics you ask about am cynical and skeptical about Lochness and Bigfoot. however am certain about Bermuda Triangle and U.F.O. ( have seen a U.F.O. )