Monday, December 31, 2007

Question of the week: Haunted things

I came across this website which challenges us to a "question of the week" so as to ponder and contemplate. This weeks question:

"Do you believe (and sure, I probably should have done this question back in October, whatever) that a house* can be haunted or that people can communicate with the dead?"

I must admit - the comments to that particular question immediately jump to the empirical: nope because it's not possible. And Columbus believed the world to be flat and look where that got him. Point being: we assume how things work one way until we prove it differently, better using a different means and explanation.

That's why we have science.

But to casually dismiss the existence of a haunted house or mysterious happenings is simply subscribing to the "earth is flat" belief without at least being open to the possibility. And that's as far as I can personally take it too -- because there's no proof to say the answers rest in science any more than we can prove that something is haunted by a spirit of some kind. We simply do not know.

We find ourselves gravitating towards a comfortable explanation that soothes and satisfies our sense of awareness in the universe around us. If our beliefs are centered so that no spirits live amongst us - then your comfortable with dismissing it and living your life in that way. I happen to believe there is -- and it's not based on science, a proof, or anything of that sort. It's a feeling. And whether or not I'm projecting my feeling in that particular "odd moment" when I feel the presence of someone else or that something isn't quite right -- then so be it. That's a fair and balanced look at it.

But ultimately - we don't know, so therefore - how can we derive such concrete answers?

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