The Paranormal (Where is it now?)

by David Turell , Thursday, February 05, 2009, 14:18 (5556 days ago) @ John Clinch

I so agree.
> 
> There's nowt to explain. All these "inexplicable" coincidences and apparent presentiments are more than adequately understood if one has regard to the very human qualities of wishful thinking, and confirmation and selection biases - the sort of standard pattern-making that we humans have evolved to do. This is really basic stuff.
 
> 
> On the other, we have all the well-established evidence that homo sapiens has evolved to be (for good adaptive reasons) a pattern-seeking creature; that this pattern-seeking leads us to believe that utterly unrelated things are causally connected (i.e. magical thinking); that our memory is highly selective and seeks confirmation of what we, as intelligent social animals, would like to be the case, often because it's socially reinforcing; that we story-telling creatures use reminiscences and anecdotes to bolster our sense of security, purpose and comfort and to dispel our fear of separation and death; and, if any exist, that we latch onto any confirmatory study to support what, a priori, we would like to believe. 
 
 An excellent article on the scientific debate behind Clinch's point of view:
 
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20126941.700-born-believers-how-your-brain-creates-god.html?page=1