weird things

[lauralh]

Abducted is a pretty short nonfiction book, in which the author ties together disparate threads to explain why/how people come to believe they were abducted by aliens. I'm always curious as to why people believe weird things - as opposed to knowing the weird things they believe, which tends to be horribly boring unless tied together by Shea and Wilson - because it's so utterly understandable yet confusing at the same time. That is to say, I can see where it starts, but I don't get why people continue in the face of other evidence.

But I'm kind of excessively logical that way. And part of the problem is that there's no way to prove that these people weren't actually abducted. Basically it comes down to having sleep paralysis and being fantasy-prone, although there's a bit more to it than that. The interesting part is that most of these people aren't nuts or anything like that, they just have a really weird belief. Although is this belief any weirder than the Jesus thing? At this point in time, yes, but only because it's less common.

Comments

[herbaliser.livejournal.com]

there's definitely a huge community built to support the alien abduction thing though

[katyakoshka.livejournal.com]

Some people really hate that book. I could almost sense frothing-mouthed rage in some of those reviews. Looks interesting, though.

Religion is pretty weird as a rule. While I like to think I'm logical enough to not hold on to weird beliefs in the face of contrary evidence, maybe I'm fooling myself.

Also, the second episode of the current season of House: Alien abductions explained! (Okay, just for one freaky kid.)