Skepticism in a nutshell

On episode #208 of the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe podcast, the SGU folks took questions from the audience at TAM7. The best question, I thought, came from my friend Bruce who asked how to explain a skeptics convention and skepticism so that a teenager might understand.

I’d go farther than the teenager. How do I explain it to my Mom or Dad or coworkers who can see my enthusiasm for the skeptical community? They have no idea if it’s a religion, a fun hobby, a political party, or just an odd obsession.

I was not satisfied with the SGU rogues’ answers but there were a lot of pertinent points brought up – promotion of science and science education, examination of the paranormal, logical and critical thinking. I don’t agree with Jay who said that a short answer isn’t the best. I think at least a brief introduction is a good idea. A little bit is better than a full-out presentation with examples that might freak them out.

It could be there is no suitable in-a-nutshell explanation but I’m going to try.

“What’s a “skeptic”?”, asks an acquaintance/family member during a casual conversation.

“Well,” I begin, “A skeptic and the skeptical community are people interested in science who consider claims made by others using very careful collection and evaluation of evidence. The evidence must be better than a blurry photo or an eyewitness story on TV where the event or description can’t be verified, examined or reproduced. So, many claims about special medicines, miraculous cures, UFOs, conspiracies, psychic ability, supernatural phenomena, etc. do not withstand a skeptical inquiry because the evidence is such poor quality.”

If you have the opportunity, you might add, “Most people can’t take the time to check the so-called facts they hear on TV or in print, even the internet, but the skeptical community examines these claims critically and points out the fiction. I’d like to think Bigfoot or ghosts are what people say they are but, after decades of looking, there is just no body of scientific evidence for these things. A skeptic can expose hoaxes, tricks, scams or the misuse of facts. They can spot something that sounds like science but is really just a put-on that sounds credible. So, the skeptical community serves a very useful role in society because they question what many people just assume to be true. Exposing claims that are likely not true allows us to stop wasting time, money or effort on them.”

Did I go over 30 seconds? Don’t get me talking about this stuff, I’ll prattle on…

Pennsylvania bigfoot sighting – just a story?

Cryptomundo is reporting a bigfoot (or dogman-type creature) sighting the occurred in western Pennsylvania on July 10.

The report should say “Jumonville” not Jammonville. This area east of Uniontown is rugged and heavily wooded.

I won’t bother commenting on Cryptomundo anymore because my words get edited or might not even appear. But, I noticed, as usual, the Cryptomundo commentators are impressed with the witness and her report. They find her believable. Yet, they easily slip into paranormal mode – Bigfoot can have pointy ears, the odd traits mentioned make it more believable, etc.

I see several problems with the report. At 6PM, the alleged time of sighting when the woman was driving, it was not dark. She reports she was going 35 MPH. That’s not very fast – something approaching the car would either look human (bipedal) or not (quadruped). How did it run away? On two feet? Did it run like a human? The report doesn’t say.

I don’t understand how it managed to “leap across the trunk”. How did it get behind the car? Apparently, she did not hit it but successfully avoided it. There are scratches shown on the car. (So what – lot’s of people scratch their cars up.) There are several details left out. Then investigators from the PA Bigfoot research group followed up on the report. They took pictures.

The pictures are what got me a bit flabbergasted. THIS IS A RESIDENTIAL AREA. It’s not the wilds as was suggested. Why was no one else around at 6PM on a Friday night?! The thing apparently ran from a school yard area through the parking lot of a convenient store. I have a harder time believing that there weren’t people around the store getting a pack of smokes, buying beer, picking up a pizza, hanging out. This makes no sense whatsoever.

The PA Bigfoot group has a closed forum and I am not currently intent on registering to listen in on speculation. This closed community aspect makes this type of forum nice for participants but excludes it from being scientific. The same can be said for Cryptomundo – a closed community ends up with warped thinking. No new input is incorporated. Mistakes are propagated, not corrected. They make little progress.

As a PA resident, I can tell you that bears are apparently all over the place right now. Did the witness see a bear? I can’t say. I think it’s more likely she almost hit a person. Having this close and unexpected an encounter with any living thing (except maybe a bug) is upsetting. If it was me, I would think that I would have chased after it, yelling to get people’s attention or at least go back and check to see if anyone else saw it. I’m sympathetic to this witness because she may think she saw something quite scary. I could and would not tell her she was crazy or wrong. This event was a matter of interpretation. So, nothing personal towards her, but the researchers’ intent is to consider this sighting as a real occurrence – outside of personal interpretation.

I’m not sure that’s possible. There is no corroborating evidence. It ends up only as a personal experience. I’m confounded about such reports. Because they make no sense and can’t be followed up, they actually have little value. Eyewitness evidence is weak and totally prone to error due to environmental conditions, physical constraints of the witness, emotional interference and the like. So, anecdotes can guide you where to look but can’t be used to support a claim such as this. If researchers really think there are big, unknown, physically implausible animals running into town on a Friday night, the Bigfoot organization needs to follow up better on this. I wish them well and I hope they find something better than a story.