Why do people still believe this?

[Deleted]

Somebody showed me this going OMG YOU GOTTA SEE. Naturally I knew it was BS however his defence was "Nah it was on Animal Planet". This really got my back up as I adored Animal Planet however as we discussed in another thread about ratings over integrity I can't help facepalm

[Bathory]

WHOA. I didn't know mermaids were real! I gotta share this

[Deleted]

Because people hope and want to believe. Once someone wants to believe something, no matter how ridiculous and impossible it might sound, they will think it's the truth, but I don't want to derail into a conversation about religion now.

[Nemesiz]

Omfg, mermaids are real?!

[twelvethirty]

it was on animal planet. of course its real

[Chain Chungus]

“A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage.”

Suppose … I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you’d want to check it out, see for yourself….

“Show me,” you say. I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle—but no dragon.

“Where’s the dragon?” you ask.

“Oh, she’s right here,” I reply, waving vaguely. “I neglected to mention that she’s an invisible dragon.”

You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon’s footprints.

“Good idea,” I say, “but this dragon floats in the air.”

Then you’ll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire.

“Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless.”

You’ll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible.

“Good idea, except she’s an incorporeal dragon and the paint won’t stick.”

And so on. I counter every physical test you propose with a special explanation of why it won’t work.

Now, what’s the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all? If there’s no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? Your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it is true. 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 do comes down to believing, in the absence of evidence, on my say-so.

The only thing you’ve really learned from my insistence that there’s a dragon in my garage is that something funny is going on inside my head. You’d wonder, if no physical tests apply, what convinced me. The possibility that it was a dream or a hallucination would certainly enter your mind. But then why am I taking it so seriously? Maybe I need help. At the least, maybe I’ve seriously underestimated human fallibility….

Now another scenario: Suppose it’s not just me. Suppose that several people of your acquaintance, including people who you’re pretty sure don’t know each other, all tell you they have dragons in their garages—but in every case the evidence is maddeningly elusive. All of us admit we’re disturbed at being gripped by so odd a conviction so ill-supported by the physical evidence. None of us is a lunatic. We speculate about what it would mean if invisible dragons were really hiding out in garages all over the world, with us humans just catching on. I’d rather it not be true, I tell you. But maybe all those ancient European and Chinese myths about dragons weren’t myths after all…

Gratifyingly, some dragon-size footprints in the flour are now reported. But they’re never made when a skeptic is looking. An alternative explanation presents itself: On close examination it seems clear that the footprints could have been faked. Another dragon enthusiast shows up with a burnt finger and attributes it to a rare physical manifestation of the dragon’s fiery breath. But again, other possibilities exist. We understand that there are other ways to burn fingers besides the breath of invisible dragons. Such “evidence”—no matter how important the dragon advocates consider it—is far from compelling. Once again, the only sensible approach is tentatively to reject the dragon hypothesis, to be open to future data, and to wonder what the cause might be that so many apparently sane and sober people share the same strange delusion.

—Carl Sagan, The Demon-Haunted World (Ballantine Books: 1995), pp. 171-173.

[Razorice]

Mermaids are real. These days they are called feminists.

[Deleted]

how exactly is that thing supposed to be a mermaid?

looks like a fin of some fish to me?

[Eldar45]

Animal Planet/Discovery did both a good thing and a terrible thing with this show. The idea was sound, but they didn't give enough disclaimers to show that this footage and all the stuff surrounding it was fake. Now we got people who think mermaids are real, and that megalodon still exists.

The premise was that this is what would happen if a new species such as these were discovered, not that they had actually been discovered (Because obviously they haven't).

TLDR: Basically, Discovery has made a new genre that I would call a Fakeumentary, and didn't put the due disclaimers on them to inform people that they are fake.

[Thelxi]

I actually watched that whole thing, and at the very very end it has this little disclaimer about fiction and acting. This "documentary" was what really put me off these channels. Just rude.

[Deleted]

There are known knowns, and there are known unknowns.

A lot of shit we haven't even thought of probably exists in the ocean if that statement about 90%~ of the ocean is "unexplored" is true.

theres genuine scientific research into undiscovered marine life, then theres fake bs

[Gwiez]

Ghosts, aliens, mermaids, and miracles sell more commercials than actual educational shows, so just being on an "educational" channel doesn't mean anything. It's an argument from authority logical fallacy to assume they do.

People *want* magic to be real, so they convince themselves it is.

[Deleted]

Animal Planet/Discovery did both a good thing and a terrible thing with this show. The idea was sound, but they didn't give enough disclaimers to show that this footage and all the stuff surrounding it was fake. Now we got people who think mermaids are real, and that megalodon still exists.

The premise was that this is what would happen if a new species such as these were discovered, not that they had actually been discovered (Because obviously they haven't).

TLDR: Basically, Discovery has made a new genre that I would call a Fakeumentary, and didn't put the due disclaimers on them to inform people that they are fake.

I enjoy hypothetical documentaries when addressed as hypothetical. What I dislike is shows preying on the gullible for money with misinformation

[Duridi]

I saw this clip on youtube but there was actually an hour show on Animal Planet, and I must say things I saw there made me wonder, but what keeps me back to reality is - "Why this shit never happens to me or in my country?".

Well, aren't we talking about the sea here? We know very little about the deeper areas of the sea. Not saying this was very deep though. Seeing as there were people there. As far as I know, we don't have the technonolgy to go down to the deepest areas ourselves, and rely on machines doing it for us. Atleast that's what I've memorized about the subject.

[PACOX]

A lot of people who believe in this stuff don't actually think its real. Instead its adult make believe, kind of how people pretend wrestling is real or how people get wrapped up into their favorite video game lore. To them its fun to play with the idea of of monsters being real, moves the mind past the mundane world. Some just really like fringe ideas. You do have those who REALLY believe but they view the world in a different light anyway so whatever to them. As long as they aren't anybody who cares.

[Deleted]

Shots FIRED!

OT: They might be real, they might not be real.

We don't know.



I guess that's true, but a lot of people think a lot of stuff they "don't know" is also BS without evidence, which is how everyone should think. Since there's no evidence of them being real, or being fake. We just don't know without oceans being fully explored.

Possibly, however thats another topic... I personally find the notion of a undersea civilisation unlikely on a evolutionary basis

[Tisane]

Reminds me of Discovery Channel's Shark Week (which happened to have taken place last week again like every year). Loads of fictional shark documentaries, such as documentaries claiming that the Megalodon is still alive and what else not (of course including amateur footage).

[mikencarly]

Mermaids are real. These days they are called feminists.

LMFAO! holy crap thats funny as hell!

[3DTyrant]

Yes, because it was on the television, means that it's real! That's proof alone

[Rizendragon]

Somebody showed me this going OMG YOU GOTTA SEE. Naturally I knew it was BS however his defence was "Nah it was on Animal Planet". This really got my back up as I adored Animal Planet however as we discussed in another thread about ratings over integrity I can't help facepalm

Animal Planet is owned by Discovery which has started doing mockumentaries which seems to have a bunch of ppls panties in a twist. Basically sheep will believe anything until they're eaten...