Why is Spirit Science and other pseudoscience on the rise?

[Zontar]

pseudoscience has been around since the 60s, but what I want to know is why is it, and more specifically one of its chief advocates known as the YouTube channel "Spirit Science", suddenly gaining popularity? The channel is just giving obviously fake statements or out right lies about science and how the world works without evidence using a format stolen from Extra Credits. I just don't understand how people can believe any of it (though being the son of a lawyer and a CSA member is probably a major factor).

 

[tippy2k2]

I would guess it's a combination of two things:

Ease of access and disenchantment with organized religion

Ease of access is pretty obvious. With the internet, things like "Spirit Science" can have a community that just wasn't really possible pre-internet era.

Disenchantment of organized religion is a bit trickier but people turn against religious establishments (either because of scandals like the Catholic Priest stuff or personal experiences within a church) but they still feel the need for spirituality or something similar. Spirit Science stuff let's them feel spiritual without the baggage that comes with organized religions.

Or at least these are my best guesses since I really don't follow this stuff at all.

 

[Someone Depressing]

I once saw a video of a girl, who talked about nothing for 10 minutes, spent 4 minutes opening a can of mixed beans and soup-in-one, poured it on the floor, ripped a hole in her trousers, and peed in it.

..It's science!

it's not just some dumb ass hippy wasting beans and pissing on the floor and pretending to be spiritual oh wait that's exactly what this is, some dumb ass hippy wasthing beans and pissing on the floor and pretending to be spiritual

Nobody knows what is running through these people's minds. Then again, would you really want to know?

 

[FalloutJack]

Alternatively, I believe Darwin called it natural selection, the process by which those without the capability to survive - by wit, by charm, by physical ability, etc. - will die so that the healty, the strong, and certainly the intelligent will live. These people who believe in bullshit that is proven bogus will die off because reality to them is an opinion they just down share.

OR, it's popular because people are laughing their asses off at stupid people.

 

[Heronblade]

It isn't, not really.

The people who are easily gullible and don't want to believe that this world we see is all that there is are just finding an outlet other than organized religion.

 

[Ratty]

Because there's money in it. Houdini spent much of his later life fighting against people who cheated grieving families out of money through "Spiritualism" seances. Which pretended to allow people to speak with their dead loved ones. A particularly lucrative business following WW1.[footnote]These scams didn't just sucker in the people you would think. Sherlock Holmes creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle embraced spiritualism so much that he wrote a story where his favorite character (Professor Challenger, he didn't really like Sherlock) converted to it. Doyle also fell for the famous "Cottingley Fairy Photos" hoax.[/footnote] People still pull this scam today, and people still fall for it. Remember that disgusting show "Crossing over with John Edward"? Same thing, taking advantage of people in grief. Homeopathic medicine and such is the same thing, taking advantage of people who are desperate, very naive or both. So any rise in the popularity of these scams is tied directly to a rise in desperation and or grief in the general populace.

Illusionist James "The Amazing" Randi has devoted his life to exposing these scam artists. And with the foundation set up in his name he's been doing it for many decades. Here's his TED talk on the subject.

There have also been several episodes of "Penn & Teller's Bullshit" on related topics I can highly recommend.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Well, I had heard that there was a growing interest in fringe religion and spirituality due to the GFC. When the real world sucks, people start seeing miracles in tree stumps and so on.

 

[Do4600]

This has been going on since the enlightenment really. I do however think that the internet has played a part in polarizing peoples view points, you can see an argument for science vs religion or conspiracy vs commonly-held knowledge in really any forum or youtube video. I think that the internet has resources to enforce and encourage a deeper scientific world-view or a psuedo-scientific world view. Once you, for instance, try homeopathy and believe it works you are likely to think that acupuncture works because it uses the same or similar justification. If you think you may have seen a ghost once, you can look up, "R Gosts reel?"(I swear this is on yahoo answers) on Google and find a confirmation and also probably get an introduction to angels, "flying rods" and Morgellons. Actually Morgellons syndrome is technically spread by reading the internet.

I think belief in these pseudo-sciences are due to dysfunction in education, the internet simply polarizes and makes these people more visible and more likely to be vocal about them.

 

[Doclector]

Recession, governments more corrupt than ever, crime may not be so bad, but the media keeps telling us it is. People need a miracle, and true science, grounded as it is, cannot provide.

That said, I do believe in the supernatural. I just don't think it's really that worth following a religion or ritual based on it. Something that powerful and mysterious, us mortals cannot control. Much better to stick with our science, the things we do know, and can control, and can, slowly, make a better world out of.

 

[Zontar]

It's on the rise? That's news to me. No offense op, but it's likely you're just more aware of it. It's always been a tendency of weak-willed/uneducated people to go out and believe or make up crazy things. That's how cults form, after all.

I was talking more the specific YouTube channel which has popped up in popularity over the past year to about a quarter million subscribers.

 

[Casual Shinji]

I'm just gonna go ahead and sound stupid here, but what's spirit science? You mean like Creationism and stuff? And if it's all over Youtube, how come I've never come across any of it?

 

[Zontar]

I'm just gonna go ahead and sound stupid here, but what's spirit science? You mean like Creationism and stuff? And if it's all over Youtube, how come I've never come across any of it?

It's a YouTube channel which uses a heavy mix of pseudoscience and every conspiracy ever created by people a can short of a six pack, including but not limited to:

-Believing Atlantic was real.
-Jews are from space.
-The illuminati is real.
-The illuminati is controlled by Martians.
-That light waves have information of some form in them.
-You can change your mood by physical contact with something of a certain colour.
-Astral projection.
And far to many others to list here.

I'm not saying that the channel is 'huge', but it did get a quarter million subs over the past year, which may not be as quickly as other channels have risen (such as CinemaSins and GameTheory), but for a channel of its type it's very large given most have no more then a few thousand.

 

[latiasracer]

-Believing Atlantic was real.

I dunno man, the proof is right infront of us!

OT :

Had a teacher in secondary school that actually tried to teach us this... Fun stuff!

 

[Soulrender95]

It's on the rise? That's news to me. No offense op, but it's likely you're just more aware of it. It's always been a tendency of weak-willed/uneducated people to go out and believe or make up crazy things. That's how cults form, after all.

While I'm not going to argue weak willed and uneducated people don't join cults, The idea that their the only ones that join is wrong and misleading. Smart, Strong willed and well educated people are just as likely to end up joining cults.

It's dangerous to think that only the gullible are susceptible to cult indoctrination. The Majority of celebrities that have joined Scientology aren't uneducated and to rise as high as they are they certainly aren't weak of willpower.
No what tends to happens is one moment of vulnerability usually emotional like the loss of a loved one , something pretty much every human alive is susceptible to, then with a helpful hand and a friendly smile they "help" you out in your time of emotional vulnerability.

Emotional vulnerability, not willpower or lack of education.

 

[Casual Shinji]

-Believing Atlantic was real.
-Jews are from space.
-The illuminati is real.
-The illuminati is controlled by Martians.
-That light waves have information of some form in them.
-You can change your mood by physical contact with something of a certain colour.
-Astral projection.

You just reminded me of Janine from Ghostbusters there for a second.

 

[hermes]

Its not on the rise. It is at about the same level it was since some decades ago. Gullible people, or people that are attracted to exotic answers have existed everywhere...

The only difference is that YouTube and Internet in general allows a lot more visibility.

 

[Hagi]

-That light waves have information of some form in them.
-You can change your mood by physical contact with something of a certain colour.

These two would technically be true, albeit probably not in the way said channel advertised them.

Light obviously carries information, if it did not we wouldn't be able to see. I mean it's just color and such, not very exciting but still information.

And mood's quite possibly the most subjective thing that exists and as such can be changed by quite literally anything someone is even remotely aware of at all. As long as someone has some sort of association to a certain color, which they could from watching and believing said channel, that color and the act of touching could change their mood. I mean let's be honest, we're talking about a species whose mood changes after taking a freaking piss they held up quite long. It's not exactly an achievement to change your or anyone else's mood, except perhaps in extreme of circumstances.

OT:

I think it's mostly people seeking easy answers to hard questions as the above shown Dara O'Briain puts it.