People perceive things differently. Two witnesses to the same event will fixate on different details. One person’s unidentified flying object is another person’s streetlamp. For some people, this leads to bigotry and hatred. For others it leads to cognitive dissonance and insanity. For me, it leads to fun.
On-and-off, I worked on Minion of Evil, which revolves around the Christian struggle of good and evil over the course of three years. During the course of the novel, I changed how I viewed the world, and went from a position of atheistic skepticism to non-judgmental optimism.
I believe there are two types of skeptics. Big-S skeptics use disbelieving things as a crutch to fill some kind of emptiness in their life, and once they set their mind on what they consider the “truth” cannot be swayed by any evidence, and small-s skeptics, who merely want to weigh the evidence on both sides before making a decision.
Also, during this time, I started doing paranormal investigation. I might not have collected enough evidence to convince a big-S Skeptic of the existence of the parnormal during that time, but I did see enough things to convince me that there is something beyond what we consider “normal” going on.
So, what is a skeptic atheist to do when confronted with believable evidence that supernatural things exist? Well, I was alway fascinated with this quote by atheist Stephen F. Roberts, “I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” So I put the question to myself, if I opened the door to believing in one invisible thing, could I discount anything?
The answer I got back was a resounding No.
Ghosts? Yeah. Fairies? Okay. Trolls? Sure. Ascended Masters? Okey Dokey. Norse gods? Skoal! Aliens? Nanu Nanu. Angels? Why not?
So, how is that working out for me? I’ve believed in all invisible things now for two years. Has it hurt me in any way? Well, from time-to-time, I’ve felt a little silly. But at the end of the day, I have to say life is more fun and interesting.