A new Pew survey reports on Americans’ increasing belief in the paranormal. According to the chart below, the number of people who were “in touch” with a dead person has increased by 11 percentage points, and the number of people who have seen a ghost has doubled. To the skeptical, rational, scientifically minded this presents an interesting empirical question: why are ghosts increasingly appearing before and communicating with the living? Are they trying to warn us about something? 2012? Can we get an X-Prize to answer this question?
HT Charles Blow
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Sunday ~ December 13th, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Justin
I would wager that there is a significant overlap between people who believe in this stuff and believe jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem on December 25.
Monday ~ December 14th, 2009 at 8:56 am
Levi
I would wager that there has been minimal to no increase in the percentage of people who believe that Jesus was born in a manger in Bethlehem on December 25. So there seems to be no prima facie case that such a belief is relevant to the increase in belief in the supernatural.
Monday ~ December 14th, 2009 at 11:14 pm
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