Artistic Expression Vs. Scepticism
Matthew J. Didier - Director GHRS
Just when you thought it was safe to go back to loving things spiritual...
Lately, I've been having to dig harder into my sceptism to
help me put together the free GHRS (hopefully soon to be OPRC too) online course.
I've always believed a bit of sceptism is an excellent thing and
allows you not to jump to conclusions only to be hauled down later when someone points our that your fabulous paranormal experience was something rather mundane misinterpreted.
To this end, we (the OPRC) are
now working with (to a lesser degree) a card-carrying member of an organization that I've personally had a very public run-in with, CSICOP
CSICOP is a group that pretty much questions anything that smacks of the paranormal or
unexplained. Unfortunately, this means we run into logger heads with them more often than not.
I've known about CSICOP for years and actually respect their work.
In fact, in my eyes, even after the run-in I'll tell you about, Joe Nickel's book "Missing Pieces" is a required reading staple for investigators. His points are good and valid and although a debunker, his methods stand up in this hobby and should be learned. So, with this in mind, I was SO looking forward to doing a radio bit with him on CBC radio.
Let's just say, I still respect his work, but the man referred to me (on the air) as selling
children on "hoaxes and frauds" to get their interest in history up to snuff. (My argument, if a kid will visit a historic site when it's wrapped up in a ghost story, GREAT! Interest and attention is everything! Before the really nasty comments, Mr. Nickel said that this isn't the RIGHT reason for visiting the site. My view: ANYTHING I can do to get my kid interested in history and his/her community that doesn't involve
real nastiness is great!)
Sorry, I digress and my "venom" over this issue can be truly read here http://www.torontoghosts.org/techhistory.htm
Well, our friend and colleague Peter was nice enough
to ensure that I saw the latest copy of "Skeptical Briefs," which is the newsletter of CSICOP.
It appears that CSICOP seems to hate religion more than it hates us hoaxers and
frauds! There were a couple of
articles not-so-gently ridiculing Judeo/Christian religions for various reasons.
NOW, I'm not a practicing "anything" and truly my own sense of God is just that, my own and private, BUT I've always
marvelled at the beauty that man creates to celebrate his version of God.
When in Europe, chapels, churches and cathedrals always inspire me... Not to become a better
*FILL IN THE BLANK HERE* but to the majesty of human creation. As a kid (and adult) I have always had a love of classical music most of which was written and inspired by the church in it's many facets. Bach, Handel, Brahms and even Mozart composed religious songs.
The paintings and stained glass always left me breathless and although I'm not a "good churchgoing boy" and
the few services I've attended have left me a little dry, the sheer magnitude of the art and workmanship left me in awe.
Heck, on this note, look at the Hindu faith and it's majestic icons or the Budhists.
Even native Canadian art dealing with the spiritual give me a lift. A vision of a God has always, in my eyes, brought out mankinds passions... granted, not all of them the best, BUT at least it wasn't blank inspiration.
So, reading this newsletter, I was ever so happy to see that an article about such
things ended by pointing out that a "Germanic lover of great art" also was inspired by these things... Art, music, philosophy, spiritualism and even mentioned the love of this person of the authors Cervantes, Defoe and Swift to name but a few.
The mocking quote given to accent this from this Germanic person is "Nothing can take the place of a great painter or poet." "The highest realm is that of artistic creativity."
The man, Adolph Hitler.
THANK YOU SKEPTICAL BRIEFS (and in fact, Lewis Jones in the article "Transgressing the Boundaries" in the September 2001 copy)!
Nice for you to lump lovers of art and music
(point above) regardless of it being secular or not into the same lump with the 20th centuries greatest monster!
One has to wonder exactly how bad a point you feel you have to make by making people believe
that if you enjoy music, poetry and painting that you are in the same league as this? One wonders what CSICOP was hoping to convey in reality? Are they afraid of art? Must "pure science" and
"critical thinking" kill the ability of one to create?
I'm sorry, but science NEEDS creativity. To quote another man, "Without deviation, there can be no progress." - Frank Zappa
I'm
sorry, I know it's the job of CSICOP and such people to be "edgy" and to stir up the pot, but some of the things they do truly make me wonder what their motivation is!
I asked a friend who is also
familiar with
CSICOP the question: "What is their worst nightmare? Why does CSICOP go for the jugular so ruthlessly? What are they worried about IF (God forbid,) humans MIGHT accept some things on faith rather than reflex?"
There doesn't seem to be a real answer other than these groups seem to feel that if we actually have "faith" and believe in the unknown to a degree, we'll all end up in stick huts with no
electricity because we'd be putting all our faith in mysterious powers.
For the record, I'm a history and folkore nut. I believe in ghostly phenomena. I investigate the unknown and I'm not really THAT
sceptical (although for honesties sake, I try my best to be that
way). Anyone who knows me well knows that I am actually quite open to many of the more psychical sides of things YET, SOMEHOW, I have been employed professionally in the "high tech" industry for more than a dozen years. I keep up on scientific discoveries both in the paranormal and VERY normal world. I have
to, and I get as big a kick out of discovering a new way of scripting a computer language to do something magic on a PC as I do when I discover a new "haunt".
I guess my point is that a little faith
and creativity put forward in the right direction, in my eyes, beats the living heck out of the fear that with even a little spirituality, we'll all end up in the mud.
I'm not a Nazi. I'm not a Caveman. I embrace
technology and somehow, I hope and believe there is a little more to life than the simple cut-and-dry stuff of the pure non-believer.
In fact, I feel sad for them as they have truly cut themselves off from a
little happiness if they can't enjoy art in any form because it's not "scientific".
(C) 2001-2002 ONTARIO PARANORMAL RESEARCH COALITION