50 Popular Beliefs That People Think Are True

by Harrison, Guy P.

  Trevor, a very bright university graduate and former soccer star now in his midtwenties, says he has experienced four or five sleep paralysis episodes in his life. “Usually I feel like someone is in the room with me or lying down next to me,” he said. “Sometimes I can see a face and sometimes I can only see a shadow-type figure. I always feel like I'm conscious but can't move or make any sounds. A lot of the time I'm trying to talk or yell but nothing comes out. When I really concentrate hard I can move a finger, and once I make that small movement then I wake up. The experience is damn scary.”

  Based on clinical descriptions and personal experiences like Andrea's and Trevor's, an episode of sleep paralysis certainly would terrify most people. Imagine going to sleep and then “waking up” to find that you can't move your arms and legs no matter how hard you try. You can't speak or cry for help. Now imagine scary figures congregating around your bed. Maybe one of them touches you, hurts you, or even rapes you. During all of this you might feel like you are fully awake but immobilized and helpless. Maybe you can see, hear, feel, and even smell everything around you. Then you wake up in the morning feeling terrible. You are confused, tired, and maybe even haunted for weeks and months by a sense that something is very wrong. But you can't quite figure out what really happened that night. Perhaps you might become obsessed with “the problem” and begin grasping for answers anywhere you can find them. What was done to you? Who did it? Why did they do it? A few millennia ago, a mischievous god would have been a credible answer. Back then, gods came down from Mount Olympus or wherever to assist, torment, challenge, and have sex with humans all the time. A few centuries ago, the suggestions that it was a witch or ghosts likely would have satisfied your curiosity. During those times, virtually any unidentified noise in the night was deemed to be a demon, a ghost, or some such supernatural creature. Today, however, we have the mythical “grays,” little aliens with big brains and large, creepy dark eyes. They are the night creepers of our time. It's the ideal upgrade for the high-tech space age period we now live in. Everybody knows about the agreed-upon look of aliens today. They are in books, films, and television shows, and they star in numerous contact and abductions stories. I have a rubber one posing on a bookshelf in my house right now. The standard alien abduction and experimentation storyline is near universal as well. It has spread around the world to most countries. Even most young children know how aliens are supposed to look and how the script is supposed to go when they come calling: first abduction, then experimentation, followed by memory erasure and release back into the wild. Yes, cultural saturation appears complete. This means, of course, that the stage is set for little extraterrestrials to visit many more people in their sleep.

  Sleep paralysis and false memories may account for the alleged victims' belief, but what about the millions of people who do not claim to have had such an encounter but still believe these incidents occur to others? Why in the world would they choose such an improbable explanation when a far more reasonable one is available? I have been curious about this for many years and have asked every abduction believer I've ever encountered. The responses are almost always the same. First they retell a story, such as the famous Betty and Barney Hill abduction that supposedly occurred in 1964, and ask why anyone would make up such a thing. I counter that some people might do it in order to get attention or possibly profit from it. Or maybe sleep paralysis, hallucinations, and manufactured dreams from hypnotherapy make the event seem real to them even though it never happened. Maybe they are not lying and really do believe it happened, but this alone does not mean it did happen. I explain that people can have hallucinations, sleep paralysis is a known phenomenon, and psychologists have proven that it's not difficult for someone to change real memories and create false memories in another person's mind. It's almost always at this point that believers try to switch lanes and pull me into a debate over the possibility of extraterrestrial life. After I make it clear that I'm a big fan of astrobiology and think there is a very good chance that the universe is teeming with life, maybe even a few million intelligent species, they accuse me of contradicting myself. How, they ask, can I be so closed-minded about alien abductions when I'm open to the possibility of alien life? My final answer is that I'm not closed-minded. The idea of advanced extraterrestrials coming here, even if they are too aggressive and sexually perverted, is exciting and I would want to know all about it. But just because the possibility of contact thrills me doesn't mean I'm willing to pretend that it has happened until there is a sensible reason to believe it has.

  GO DEEPER…

  Clancy, Susan. Abducted: How People Come to Believe They Were Kidnapped by Aliens. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005.

  Shostak, Seth. Sharing the Universe: Perspectives on Extraterrestrial Life. Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Hills Books, 1998.

  Throw away the tarot deck and ignore the astrology column. They are products offered you by charlatans who think you are not the marvelous, capable, independent being you are.

  —James Randi, Flim-Flam!

  There is harm, real harm, in astrology. It weakens further people's ability to rationally look at the world, an ability we need now more than ever.

  —Phil Plait, BadAstronomy.com

  I can remember being mildly impressed with my sign, Libra, many years ago because it seemed to offer amazing insight into my personality. According to astrology, I was intelligent, fair, resourceful, kind, funny, and charming. Yep, that's me! But just when I might have been in danger of being seduced by the power of the stars and planets, skepticism and critical thinking came to the rescue. Astrology never had a chance.

  It's one thing to believe in something for no other reason than you want to or it feels good, but it amazes me how many people say astrology is scientific and supported by evidence. They don't “believe” in astrology, they “know” it's true because it's so logical. You would not believe how many people I have encountered who think astrology is synonymous with astronomy. I found this to be common in the Caribbean, where astrology and astronomy books are more often than not shelved together as the same subject in bookstores. Many Caribbean people speak of astrology like it is legitimate science. I found the same to be true throughout Asia. During a visit to Chicago's fine Adler Planetarium, I was shocked to see an astrology book in the gift shop, shelved alongside books by Stephen Hawking and Carl Sagan. Thousands of newspapers, including the one I currently write a column for, print horoscopes on their pages every issue.

  Given the extraordinary nature of astrology's claim—that the positions of stars and planets at the time of one's birth reveal or determine both personality and future events that can be foretold—it is remarkable that so many people believe it. But believe in it they do. In the United States, for example, 25 percent of the population thinks astrology's claims are valid.1 Despite having no theory to explain it, and no evidence or scientific basis to prove it, astrology has been touted, taught, sold, bought, respected, and “used” for thousands of years with no signs of going away anytime soon. Many of history's most powerful and important people have taken this pseudoscience seriously—and not just in ancient times. For example, many of President Ronald Reagan's daily meetings and movements were set by his wife based on his horoscope.2 Many other prominent leaders in recent years have been rumored to consult the stars before making decisions. That should scare everyone who understands that astrology is worthless as a source of useful information.

  To be crystal clear, astrology is not scientific—not even close. It was originally rooted in magical thinking when it gained popularity some four thousand years ago and, as far as I can tell, it has remained loyal to those roots to this day. Astrologers love to point out that modern astronomy grew out of ancient astrology. Sure, ancient astrologers engaged in real astronomy too, but that overused claim to fame is smothered under the weight of all the pseudoscientific baggage that astrology carries.

  One only has to consider the source of astrology's alleged ability to k
now a person's personality and destiny to recognize that there is nothing to this. It may surprise some believers, but there is no complex mathematical formula, no ancient equation derived from the collected wisdom of previous generations, that reveals personality traits according to birth date. No, the traits associated with a particular sign are primarily based on how ancient people viewed the creature or object that they constructed with stars after playing connect the dots with constellations. I'm a Libra, for example, which is represented by scales that somebody centuries ago imagined they saw in the sky. For this reason I'm supposed to be a fair person and very concerned about justice. I'm not joking; that's really what it is based on. The ancient Babylonians never launched a scientific quest to find a genuine link between human behavior and the locations of astronomical objects. No, they just looked up at the night sky and then made it all up. So why do people still believe in it all these years later?

  Astrology endures because most people don't appreciate the need for skepticism and critical thinking when confronted with such claims. It also obviously responds to a natural human desire to know ourselves better. Who wouldn't want to know if tomorrow will be a good day or a bad, if love is on the way, or if there is danger lurking? It also feels good to have our egos stroked, something professional astrologers are well aware of and make sure to deliver to clients. This is why you will never see a horoscope like this:

  You are not attractive and you are probably never going to be very successful. Your dreams are unrealistic and will not come true. Maybe you should just give up now and stop wasting everybody's time. Face it, we all can't be winners. Somebody has to lose, and that somebody is you. It is also time for you to accept that nobody really likes you. You are annoying. Do your friends and family a favor and move to another country.

  Now that's a horoscope I might respect. But we never seem to see one like that in the newspapers, do we?

  I have a short list of key points that I like to share with astrology believers. I don't attempt to bully them into a corner over the unlikely effect of Venus's gravity on my pet dog's happiness or specifics like that. Not only is that tactic usually a waste of time but, as with other paranormal or pseudoscientific beliefs, I figure it's best for the believer to do his own mental work and navigate his own way out of the dark and into the light. Remember that one or two well-crafted questions that are delivered in a friendly manner can do far more damage to an irrational belief than a hundred thundering facts declared by a smug skeptic. I tend to offer the following friendly advice and leave it at that:

  Believers should ask professional astrologers, or anyone who actively promotes astrology, to explain how they come to their conclusions. Don't read astrology books, articles, and horoscopes uncritically. Pay attention and notice that no sensible explanation is ever given for how we can know people born on June 4, for example, act one way while people born on September 4 act another way. Always ask the key questions. What causes the differences in personalities? Where does the information that horoscopes are based on come from? What specific force is exerting all this influence on us? Is it gravity? If so, how does the extremely weak gravitational effect from distant stars and planets do it? Is it altering our brains or genes? How? Once one realizes that there are no sensible and consistent answers to any of this, that it's all based on ancient superstition, it becomes much more difficult to believe in astrology.

  Don't stop with your horoscope. Most people who regularly check their horoscope in the newspaper or on a website probably never think to read the other horoscopes. Pick another sign and read the horoscope for it as if it's yours. Do this every day for a month and you are bound to be amazed at how “accurate” that one is too. Horoscopes are more convincing when you only read one of them because they are intentionally written to be one-size-fits-all. Once it's revealed that one horoscope works just as well as another, it's easy to recognize what's going on.

  Watch out for the trap of remembering a few predictions that came true while forgetting the hundreds and thousands that didn't come true. Astrologers, just like psychics, know that if you make enough guesses and predictions, at least some of them are bound to score.

  Astronomy is like kryptonite to astrology. Learn some of it and you will see that the real science of stars and planets makes astrology wither and die out in the cold darkness of space. Good riddance.

  GO DEEPER…

  Culver, Roger B. Gemini Syndrome! A Scientific Evaluation of Astrology. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1988.

  Culver, Roger B., and Philip A. Ianna. Astrology: True or False? A Scientific Evaluation. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1993.

  Goldberg, Dave, and Jeff Blomquist. A User's Guide to the Universe. New York: Wiley, 2010.

  Hart-Davis, Adam. The Cosmos: A Beginner's Guide. London: BBC Books, 2007.

  Stewart, Joseph V. Astrology: What's Really in the Stars. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books, 1996.

  There is a widely used notion that does plenty of damage: the notion of “scientifically proven.” Nearly an oxymoron. The very foundation of science is to keep the door open to doubt.

  —Carlo Rovelli, “The Uselessness of Certainty”

  I'm smart enough to know that I'm dumb.

  —Richard Feynman

  It's a major problem that science is overlooked, underappreciated, discouraged, denied, obstructed, and outright rejected by many people around the world, but what about those who give science too much credit and respect? While there is no data I know of on how many people have an excessive faith in science and believe it can do no wrong, I suspect it is more common and more of a problem than most would think. I have traveled extensively on six continents, not as a pampered tourist in air-conditioned buses with guides paid to smile at me, but mostly as a lonely writer and photographer roaming the back alleys and hillsides of the real world. Even in lands where superstition reigns supreme, I encountered many people who possess a weird reverence for science. For them it is just another form of magic or religion, and those who do science are only more sorcerers and holy men. They believe science is always right and every scientist is a genius. They view technology, the products of science, as secular miracles and proof of some imagined infallibility among scientists. This is far from reality, of course. It is also dangerous when people place too much stock in scientists and the things they say. One of the common paths to irrational beliefs is placing too much trust in authority figures. It is not only a problem in politics and religion. Trusting the words of scientists uncritically can be just as risky.

  Look hard enough and it's possible to find doctorate-holding scientists somewhere in the world who will tell you that cigarettes are not all that bad for you, UFOs are definitely alien spaceships, minds can bend spoons, and the Earth is less than ten thousand years old. Isaac Newton, arguably the greatest scientist ever, was not content to invent calculus and figure out how planets move. He also spent a lot of his time trying to turn lead into gold and calculating the date on which the world would come to a supernatural end. Leading scientists in Europe and the United States were once convinced that the shape of a person's head was a reliable measure of intelligence and morality. Racism and sexism were once sanctioned by mainstream science. How can any of this be true? Scientists are supposed to come to conclusions based on evidence and sound reasoning. They are smart and spend a lot of time in school. They understand the scientific method and know the difference between science and pseudoscience. They are supposed to be the people who always get it right and know everything about everything, right?

  Not even close.

  For all its greatness, science has one flaw that will forever keep it humble and stop it well short of perfection: Humans are involved in it. The bias, greed, arrogance, fear, overconfidence, susceptibility to illusions, tendency to see patterns where none exist, excessive trust in tradition, and many more traits that define us guarantee that mistakes will be made. Even with the contaminating effect of human involvement, however, science still helps us to und
erstand ourselves and the universe better than anything else we have. If you have a serious injury or illness, your chances of survival are much better in the hands of someone trained in medical science rather than magic, prayer, or alternative medicine. If you want to know something about space, it's best to consult an astronomer rather than an astrologer. Magic spells won't take you very far, but a rocket or airplane—products of science—will. Most people neglect to give credit where credit is due. But let's be honest, it was science that revealed to us all so much of the important stuff that we now tend to take for granted. Prophets, soothsayers, and fortune tellers did not come up with cell theory, germ theory, special relativity, plate tectonics, atomic theory, the theory of gravity, the theory of evolution, and so on. Without science, we would still be blaming demons for illnesses and reading bird entrails to set our daily agendas. Without science, we would know little about the galaxies, nebulae, and planets beyond our solar system, nor would we know about the genes in our cells or the microbes all around us and inside of us. Only science offers the ladder by which we may one day climb to faraway planets. Magic will never take us to Mars. Prayer will never unlock the remaining secrets of our genome. Science is the one and only path to continuing enlightenment about the universe and ourselves. As a tool of discovery, it is nothing less than wonderful and absolutely necessary for modern civilization. However, we must not let science's ability to produce so many wonderful answers and discoveries hide the messy and error-prone way in which it works.