Strange belief in the fantastic

PZ Myers blogged about this item, then it was picked up by Orac. Many others have wondered aloud--myself included--what is this fascination with the fantastic? (Sorry for the pun.)

I have blogged about the existence of "space aliens" having visited this planet, and about crop circles ("real" and otherwise), and so have others. My 76 year old mother told me a couple years ago that she believed aliens have visited earth, and while I am willing to concede their existence from the probability alone, I really don't think they're here.

Unless they just flew in with Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.

Why I am not worried about my mother is that she's getting old, and since she has "come out" and said she has become a non-believer (that is, she doesn't believe in god), I am willing to give her the benefit of the doubt. I rather expected her to become more religious with age, not less. That she is willing to believe in aliens but not a god is telling. I think.

I watch Ghost Hunters, Medium, and that other show, Ghost Whisperer, from time to time. All of them are nothing but (nearly) mindless entertainment, and two of the shows have female leads who are fairly easy to look at. Nuff said. What I find most interesting about Jason and Grant (the Ghost Hunters guys) is that fully half the time they don't find anything. Though honestly it should be more than half "no shows," I'm willing to admit that the show's title is "Ghost Hunters," which probably suggests they should find ghosts at least part of the time.

Though these guys have a bunch of technology and such, their approach is terribly unscientific. (If it were, they'd never find anything.) Who says EMF "fields" say that there are ghosts around? Who thinks ghosts would show up on FLIR? Why do they have to do these tests only at night and only with the lights out? Do ghosts care about these things? Why do we think they do?

All the other so-called paranormal investigation shows are so much worse. They cram 15 minutes of content into an hour. True, Ghost Hunters has a lot of interpersonal drama that could seem ... irrelevant. But who's to say what's relevant or irrelevant when all you've really got to sell is entertainment?

OK, I may be over-justifying some of my mindless TV watching habits. But I watch movies about Santa Claus and about tornadoes transporting teenage girls to fantastic places, too. There's a big difference between judging entertainment at face value, and believing all this entertainment is really real.

The question I have to ask is: How can anyone possibly believe any of this stuff is real? If this stuff was real, then there would be scientific studies showing how and why. We'd have documentaries (with clear photos) showing alien ships complete with aliens. There'd be an alien ambassador to the UN, or something.

And lastly, why does anyone think that not seeing ghosts, gods, aliens, and a true Grand Design mean this universe isn't pretty damned fantastic, anyway? I subscribe to the idea that 1) within any sufficiently complex system there will be truths unprovable within the system, and 2) this universe is much more weird and complex than we know. Or will ever know.