Mistakes are becoming too expensive.
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Here are some excerpts from FBI expert Lanning's analysis of 'Satanic, Occult and Ritualistic Crime', based on bitter experience, and published in the October 1989 issue of the professional journal, The Police Chief:
Almost any discussion of satanism and witchcraft is interpreted in the light of the religious beliefs of those in the audience. Faith, not logic and reason, governs the religious beliefs of most people. As a result, some normally sceptical law enforcement officers accept the information disseminated at these conferences without critically evaluating it or questioning the sources . . . For some people satanism is any religious belief system other than their own.
If we fail to cope, if we're saddled with a burden of guilt for not having made more of ourselves, wouldn't we welcome the professional opinion of a therapist with a diploma on the wall that it's not our fault, that we're off the hook, that satanists, or sexual abusers, or aliens from another planet are the responsible parties? Wouldn't we be willing to pay good money for this reassurance? And wouldn't we resist smart-ass sceptics telling us that it's all in our heads, or that it's implanted by the very therapists who have made us happier about ourselves?
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If we fail to cope, if we're saddled with a burden of guilt for not having made more of ourselves, wouldn't we welcome the professional opinion of a therapist with a diploma on the wall that it's not our fault, that we're off the hook, that satanists, or sexual abusers, or aliens from another planet are the responsible parties? Wouldn't we be willing to pay good money for this reassurance? And wouldn't we resist smart-ass sceptics telling us that it's all in our heads, or that it's implanted by the very therapists who have made us happier about ourselves?
Why should we suppose that, of the vast treasure of memories stored in our heads, none of it could have been implanted after the event, by how a question is phrased when we're in a suggestible frame of mind, by the pleasure of telling or hearing a good story, by confusion with something we once read or overheard?
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Why should we suppose that, of the vast treasure of memories stored in our heads, none of it could have been implanted after the event, by how a question is phrased when we're in a suggestible frame of mind, by the pleasure of telling or hearing a good story, by confusion with something we once read or overheard?
Chapter 10 - The Dragon in My Garage
Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I'm asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so.
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Chapter 10 - The Dragon in My Garage
Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless, whatever value they may have in inspiring us or in exciting our sense of wonder. What I'm asking you to do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so.
Surely it's unfair of me to be offended at not being believed; or to criticize you for being stodgy and unimaginative, merely because you rendered the Scottish verdict of 'not proved'.
