The enduring mystery of the Dyatlov Pass Incident

Despite my claims of being a hard-headed rationalist, I have to admit to being fascinated by a mystery.  There is simply something intriguing about the unexplained.  While most of the sorts of stories you read in books with titles like Amazing Unexplained Mysteries of the Universe can be attributed to hoaxes, urban legends, flawed eyewitness testimony, and the like, there are a few that stand out as being thoroughly documented, researched in depth, and yet which defy conventional explanation.

One of the most curious ones is a story right out of The X Files, and one which I didn't know about until a friend sent me a link a couple of days ago.  It's called the Dyatlov Pass Incident, and occurred in February of 1959.  The mystery -- what caused the deaths of the nine backcountry skiers?

Events began in January of that year, when a group of students at the Ural Polytechnical Institute in Yekaterinburg decided to take a cross-country ski trip across the northern Urals.  It was led by Igor Dyatlov, and was composed of eight men and two women, who took a train to the town of Vizhai, and then went off on skis toward Mount Otorten.  One member, Yuri Yudin, became ill right at the beginning of the expedition and returned to Yekaterinburg via train, leaving the nine others to trek off into the wilderness.

All nine were experienced skiers and backcountry hikers.  All were in excellent physical condition, and had done similar treks before without incident.  By January 31 they had camped in a wooded valley, cached food and supplies, and the next morning headed up toward the pass that would one day bear the name of the leader of the ill-fated group.

On February 1, a snowstorm moved in, and the group lost their way -- instead of maintaining their heading toward Dyatlov Pass, they veered west, toward the peak of Kholat Syakhi.  At some point they realized their mistake, but instead of retracing their path, they chose to camp on the mountainside and wait out the storm.

Then... something happened, and all nine hikers died.

Igor Dyatlov had told Yuri Yudin that they should be back in Vizhai by February 12, and that he would send a message by telegraph when they got there.  When no word from the hikers was sent back to friends in Yekaterinburg by February 20, a rescue expedition was formed.  On February 26, the camp on the side of Kholat Syakhi was found, but there the mystery deepened.  The camp was uninhabited -- but the single large tent had been cut open from the inside.  Within the ruined tent were all of the hikers' supplies -- and all of their shoes.  A line of footprints led from the camp down the side of Kholat Syakhi, and all of the footprints showed that the individuals who made them were barefoot or clad in socks.  Five hundred meters from the camp the rescuers found the bodies of Yuri Krivonischenko and Yuri Doroshenko, shoeless and clad only in their underwear.  Further along, and in similar states of undress, were the corpses of Dyatlov, Zina Kolmogorova and Rustem Slobodin.  The remaining four members of the expedition were not found until May 4, when the thawing snow uncovered their bodies 75 meters further down the hillside.

The bodies were examined by doctors, and the first five were all found to have died of hypothermia.  Slobodin had a minor skull fracture, but not sufficient to be the cause of his death.  The four who were found on May 4, however, were a different story.  Nicolai Thibeaux-Brignolles had major head injuries, and Ludmila Dubunina and Alexander Kolevatov had huge chest injuries, "similar to those that would result from a car crash."  However, none had external damage -- it looked more like "injuries resulting from high, crushing levels of pressure."  Dubunina's tongue was missing.  The hikers who had died from injuries rather than hypothermia showed no signs of having been killed in a fight -- the doctor who examined them, Dr. Boris Vozrozhdenny, stated under oath that the damage could not have been inflicted by a human being, "because the force of the blows had been too strong and no soft tissue had been damaged."

A friend of the hikers, Yury Kuntsevich, who was at the time of the incident twelve years old, recalls that when the bodies of the hikers were brought back to Yekaterinburg, their faces looked "scorched," as if they had "deep brown tans."  Forensic radiation tests found that the hikers' clothing had high levels of radioactivity.

Now, if that wasn't weird enough, another group of hikers who was 50 kilometers to the south of Kholat Syakhi reported that on the night of February 2, they saw "orange spheres" hovering over the mountains in the direction of Dyatlov Pass.  Similar reports continued during February and March in the entire area, sightings that were corroborated by independent witnesses including meteorological services and members of the Soviet military.

The inquest into what had happened to the hikers was closed during the third week of May, because of the "absence of a guilty party."  All that could be concluded, the inquest said, was that the hikers had died because of a "compelling unknown force."  What caused their deaths remains a mystery.

There are a number of rational possibilities, of course.  The Russians were, at that time, testing missiles of various sorts, and it's possible that all of the facts of the case could be explained by a nuclear-powered missile firing gone wrong.  It is curious, however, that if this was the case, the military would have admitted to seeing the "orange spheres" sighted above Kholat Syekhi in February -- the Soviets were not exactly known for openness with regards to their military maneuvers.  It could be that the hikers stumbled upon the remains of an earlier nuclear test, and the combination of radiation poisoning and hypothermia led them to wander off unclad and shoeless -- but how, then, to explain the catastrophic compression injuries of Thibeaux-Brignolles, Dubunina, and Kolevatov?

However you look at it, the Dyatlov Pass Incident remains a perplexing and terrifying mystery.  I am still certain that there is a rational explanation for the whole thing, but even after reading a great deal about the facts of the case, I'm damned if I can see what it is.  All we know, 53 years later, is what we knew then -- that nine hikers died, under bizarre circumstances, on a snowy mountainside in the Urals, and no one knows why.

Jinn, witches, and bad behavior

A couple of days ago, I speculated that woo-woo beliefs stem primarily from three human psychological causes: (1) wishful thinking, (2) paranoia, and (3) a reluctance to consider alternative, and unpleasant, explanations.  I submit to you that there is a fourth reason -- some woo-woo beliefs give people an excuse for their own bad behavior.

A marginal example of this is the recent upsurge in fraudulent "professional psychics," who bilk people for thousands of dollars to predict futures, give personal advice, and get in touch with deceased family members.  I call this a "marginal" example because I'm pretty sure that the charlatans are aware, deep down, that they are charlatans -- that really, they're just doing convincing magic tricks and swindling the gullible.  As such, it doesn't really qualify as a true belief.  There might be some people who are convinced that they really are psychic, but I suspect that most of those do not include the big money-makers, who go on tours and perform their acts in front of thousands.

I ran into another example of woo-woo-ism used as a justification for antisocial behavior just yesterday, with the story of the young Saudi Arabian guys who went berserk and demolished an abandoned hospital because it was "haunted by jinn."  (Source)

Riyadh's Irqa Hospital, which treated Gulf War combatants twenty years ago, was left empty because of ill-repair and safety issues, and (as is common with abandoned buildings) got a reputation for being haunted.  The haunting, however, was not by the spirits of the dead; no, Irqa Hospital was haunted by jinn, who are malevolent spirits from Middle Eastern mythology, whose presence can tempt people into sinful behavior.

Well.  Evidently a bunch of people never learned the basic concept of "Mythology means it isn't true."  Of course, the fact that the jinn are mentioned several times in the Koran didn't help.  So they decided to take action.  First, an anti-jinn article appeared in the Saudi Gazette recommending the formation of a committee to decide what to do about jinn.  The article ended with the facepalm-inducing statement, "It would be no understatement to say that we are sick and tired of evil sorcerers."

Then, things escalated.  Twitter feeds from Saudi users began to buzz with recommendations that the anti-jinn cadre needed to take matters into their own hands.  And finally, a raid was organized on Irqa Hospital, and hundreds of young men descended on the place, smashing windows, punching holes in walls, and ultimately burning 60% of the building.

So, what did all of this accomplish?  My sources said nothing about hordes of dismayed, defeated jinn retreating in disarray.  My guess as to the number of jinn that were encountered that night is right out of Monty Python's "Camel Spotting" sketch; I'll bet they saw almost... one.  Given the lack of success, in the typical definition of the word, what possible motivation for the raid could these guys possibly have?

Well, it allowed them to do an activity that young men, world-wide, seem to love to do; to get together at night, in large numbers, and smash stuff up.  But unlike most places, where smashing stuff up that doesn't belong to you is considered a relatively antisocial thing to do, here the woo-woo belief system is invoked -- "Hey!  We're not just demolishing random hospitals; we demolished a hospital to save you all from the evil jinn!  You should thank us!"

It's the same sort of tendencies that lead to even worse behavior -- such as the people whose fundamental disdain for their fellow human beings, coupled with an enjoyment of causing suffering, drives them to participate in the persecution of "witches."  (And lest you think that all of that went out of fashion in the 18th century, allow me to point out that a recent news release from the Legal and Human Rights Center stated that 642 people were lynched in Tanzania last year for "practicing witchcraft.")

It's hard to face this dark side of human nature -- and once understood, it is even harder to do something to combat it.  The only thing that can conquer this kind of behavior is education; knowledge is, perhaps, the opposite of fear.  In understanding how the world actually works, we can leave behind superstitious fears and prejudices -- that jinn haunt abandoned buildings, or that people deserve death because they can cast evil spells.  Progress is slow, plodding, incremental, and there is a significant fraction of the world's population that still espouses these sorts of beliefs.  Still, we are progressing.  When you consider that it was not so very long ago that witches were hanged right here in the United States, it gives you some cause for optimism.

The rising stars of politics

If you're a Democrat, I have good news for you: President Obama is going to win reelection in November.

I'm not saying this because of any sort of expertise in politics.  In fact, saying that I am ignorant about political science is a little like saying my dog is ignorant of differential calculus.  I find politics baffling and frustrating to the extent that when I read political editorials (seldom), I usually come away feeling like I've been trying to comprehend something that my brain simply isn't built for.

So, no, the above prognostication is not based upon any kind of sophisticated political punditry.  It is based upon something that is baffling for an entirely different reason: astrology.

Yes, the astrologers have weighed in on the presidential race, and what they have come up with is going to be cheering news to any Democrats who are dumb enough to believe in astrology.  Last weekend there was a conference of "top astrologers" in New Orleans, and a panel of them put their heads together and drew lots of abstruse-looking charts, and they were unanimous in concluding that Obama would win.

Nina Gryphon, a Chicago astrologer who also has a practice as a corporate lawyer, said her conclusion was based upon the timing of the Aries ingress, the moment that the Sun enters the constellation Aries.  "It's obvious," she said. "Obama stays where he is without a change in status."

Denver astrologer Chris Brennan agreed.  He said that both Obama and Romney "are entering into peak periods of eminence in the next few months."   However, his chart-drawing turned up a difference that he said will turn the tide in Obama's favor.  "Obama's peak period stays consistent throughout the election, whereas Romney's seems to falter a few weeks before the election."

Brennan did go on to say that even though the stars are of the opinion that Obama will win, they do contain a warning that things might not stay smooth for the incumbent.  "The ingress of Saturn into Scorpio may trouble him," Brennan said to reporters.  "It won't cost him the election, but it may indicate difficulties in the first half of his second term."

Brennan hedged a little, though, when asked how sure he was about his results.  There was one other factor that could play a role, he said; "We should all be aware of the Mercury retrograde that will occur on election day.  Most astrologers are pretty certain that this could cause problems similar to what happened in the 2000 election."  The retrograde, Brennan said, "seems to imply that there's something up in the air about the election until sometime later in the month."

Oh.  Okay.  Saturn ingressing into Scorpio and Mercury retrograde means trouble.  This last one I find particularly bizarre -- not that the whole idea of thinking that there's some significance to the apparent motion of planets relative to random groupings of stars that are actually nowhere near each other, and that this motion could possibly have any bearing on a political election, is exactly sensible.  But the retrograde motion of Mercury (and Venus) are just optical illusions -- caused by the fact that they move in closer circles around the Sun than the Earth does, so at times (because the Earth is "overtaking" them in orbit) they spend a short while appearing to move backwards.  They're not actually moving backwards -- it's a total trick of perspective, similar to the apparent backwards motion of a slower-moving car relative to a distant mountain as you pass it on the highway.  So now we've moved into the realm of attributing events on Earth to a motion of a planet that isn't even happening.

Not, of course, that any astrological claim is within hailing distance of scientific validity.  Astrology makes about as much sense as thinking that a person's future could be foretold by the random patterns of lines on their hands.  Oh, wait!  People believe that, too, don't they?

I mean, come on.  How could astrology possibly work?  And don't start babbling to me about forces and energies unless you have the equations from physics to back you up.  If you think astrology is science, explain to me how the science works.

I know I'm engaging in a futile exercise, here.  It's not like my feeble attempts are going to convince the die-hard astrologers -- they are too invested in it (both philosophically and financially) to be willing to give it up.  So I suppose I should go back to doing something marginally more likely to meet with success, like teaching my dog differential calculus.

Mermaid evolution

There should be a law that if a news story has a title that is a question, the article that follows must read, in its entirety, "No."  For example:

"IS THE YELLOWSTONE SUPERVOLCANO ABOUT TO ERUPT?"

No.

"DID A PSYCHIC OCTOPUS PREDICT THE OUTCOME OF THE WORLD CUP?"

No.

"DOES THE MAYAN CALENDAR SAY THE WORLD WILL END IN DECEMBER?"

No.

I ran into an especially good example of that yesterday, an article entitled, "DO MERMAIDS EXIST?"  Unfortunately, however, the article that followed consisted of more than one word, because the aforementioned law has yet to be passed in the Senate, and also because it was written by noted wingnut and Skeptophilia frequent flyer Dirk Vander Ploeg.

Apparently, the question of whether mermaids really exist is the subject of a recent show on Animal Planet.  Myself, I have to question this choice of topics.  Given that there's no way they can have already featured each of the ten million species of real animals, there's no reason to move on to the fictional ones quite yet.  Be that as it may, they did an entire episode during "Monster Week" on the subject of mermaids, and this just thrills Dirk Vander Ploeg to pieces.

Vander Ploeg is always good for inadvertent humor, and he doesn't fail us here, starting with the first paragraph:

The new documentary, which aired on Sunday night as part of Animal Planet’s “Monster Week,” pieces together a few interesting facts to come to the improbable conclusion that mermaids, like bigfoot, the chupacabra, and vampires, may exist.

Yup.  Mermaids exist just like Bigfoot, Chupacabra, and vampires do.  Exactly that way, in fact.

So, where's the evidence?  Vander Ploeg doesn't shy away from this question, and he blames the dearth of evidence for mermaids on the entity that is responsible for so many of the world's problems -- the US government:

In fact, “Mermaids: The Body Found,” claims that several scientists have proven the existence of mermaids. But thanks to the shady government, the evidence has been hidden or destroyed.  One of the whistle-blowing scientists said, “The feeling was like something out of Orwell. This was Big Brother. They were rewriting history. Basically writing this creature out of existence.”

Oh, okay, that's plausible.  I can just see the Joint Chiefs of Staff coming together and saying, "Enough with this nonsense of addressing the economy, international trade policy, and terrorism.  We have a much more pressing problem -- how do we cover up the evidence for mermaids?"

Vander Ploeg then goes on to address the origins of mermaids, and here he quotes Charlie Foley, who directed the "Mermaids" episode on Animal Planet:

Charlie Foley, who wrote and directed the film, bases his theory largely on the amount of mermaid references in old sea-tales.  "The seafaring Greeks described (Mermaids). As did the Vikings, as did the Chinese during their greatest period of maritime exploration. They are recorded in medieval manuscripts, and even into the 19th century."

Because obviously, things recorded in old Greek, Viking, and Chinese manuscripts have to be real.  Like the Cyclops, Midgard's Serpent, and the Celestial Dragon.  But wait -- there's the scientific angle to the whole thing.  We don't just have to rely on mythology, Foley says:

The fact is there are animals that have moved from the land into the sea. Could it have happened to humans? And with aquatic ape theory, if there’s anything to it, what is the logical extension of it if we continued going in that direction. The idea is that people pulled back and we stopped evolving into a marine animal, into an aquatic animal. But what if we kept going? And that to me, knowing that it’s happened before knowing that it’s real science with other animals. Could it have happened with one branch of the human family tree?

I'll simply invoke my proposed law here:  "No."

Vander Ploeg, of course, can't resist adding his own two cents' worth regarding the origins of mermaids:

I have come to believe that Mermaids and Mermen do exist or at least did exist. I believe that they were created by the Annunaki to mine gold below the waves, perhaps in the deep oceans of the world. If gods did create us, as I believe, then it makes sense, in fact its seems probable that ancient astronaut scientists altered various species' DNA to create creatures: perhaps 50 per cent human and 50 per cent fish. If this hypothesis is correct that perhaps the minotaur and other alleged fabled creatures also existed.

Ah, it's all becoming clear.  A race of aliens that doesn't exist created a species of humanoid that also doesn't exist by splicing together human and fish DNA.  I get it now.  I only have one more thing to say, and the more sensitive members of the studio audience might want to plug their ears:

WILL YOU NIMRODS STOP BLATHERING ON ABOUT SCIENCE AS IF YOU ACTUALLY UNDERSTOOD IT?  BECAUSE YOU'RE PISSING OFF THOSE OF US WHO ACTUALLY DO.  THANK YOU.

Squatching by telepathy

I saw a friend of mine at a music gathering this weekend, and the subject of Skeptophilia came up.  And of course, whenever this blog is mentioned, the topic of Bigfoot can't be far behind.

"Have you heard about the latest in 'squatching?'" she asked me.

"No, what now?" I said.

"Getting into psychic contact with Bigfoot," she replied, grinning.  "You can ditch all of the heavy cameras and parabolic mikes and all -- you just connect to Bigfoot telepathically."

I just stared at her for a moment.  "Are you kidding me?" I said, only leaving out the non-PG-13-rated intensifier because I didn't want to offend anyone.

"Nope.  It's the latest thing."

So, I decided to look into it, and knowing that I was risking thousands of precious cells in my prefrontal cortex, I did a search for "telepathic Bigfoot research."  And, lo, what should come up but a site titled... Telepathic Bigfoot Research.

The author of the article, whose name appeared nowhere on the site that I could find, begins by giving a nod to ordinary Bigfoot researchers:

There are many non-telepathic Bigfoot researchers on the job, trying to get that physical proof. The Bigfoot research scene resembles a huge tumble-jumble of people racing to be the one great almighty Bigfoot researcher with a gold star, who will go down in history as the discoverer of the Sasquatch species.

Why, however, has this not provided any results?  The answer, the author says, is obvious:

For years Bigfoot researchers have been trying to reach Bigfoot by tromping through the forest, knocking on trees, and playing prerecorded Bigfoot screams. Unfortunately these methods haven’t been fruitful. When a Bigfoot hears Bigfoot researchers coming through the forest its instincts tell it to hide. If they do a mind probe, if they are in fact capable of that, they know that these people have Bigfoot on the mind. That would immediately set up the vibration of fear and suspicion. What telepathy can do is to head fear off at the pass. It can be the pre-contact communication that lets a Bigfoot know we mean no harm, if in fact you mean no harm. If you did mean harm, the telepathic Bigfoot would pick up that vibe.

So, we should telepathically inform Bigfoot that we're harmless?  This is not something I'd want to tell an eight-foot-tall, 350-pound proto-hominid composed predominantly of hair and muscle.  Seems to me that the first thing to establish, before "tromping through the forest," is that Bigfoot is harmless, and is not intending on turning us into meat loaf.  And in any case, if Bigfoot is capable of doing a "mind probe," why does it matter if we try to get into telepathic contact with him?  If he's as psychically adept as all that, he could do some kind of Sasquatch Mind-Meld with us, figure out that we're just peaceful "squatchers" who are trying to establish contact with him, study his species, and determine where he fits on the hominid family tree.

And then he'd turn us into meat loaf.

Of course, if Bigfoot is telepathic, you have to wonder why we're not, given how closely related humans and Bigfoots allegedly are.  But the author answers that, too:

I believe Sasquatches are closer to that condition [mystical consciousness] than human beings are because they are not distracted by electronica – the computers, iPhones, televisions, cars, the chaotic hustle-bustle of human existence. City streets. Telephones. And the list goes on. Rather than face a confusing civilization they live in the forest, probably in caves, and they have PEACE.

I bet if you'd known that it was robbing you of the ability to be telepathic, you'd never have started playing FarmVille in the first place.

So, the answer is to hire a psychic to help you find Bigfoot.  The psychic should accompany you into the woods, establish telepathic contact, and ask Bigfoot if the two of you can get together for coffee:

A psychic can contact a nearby Bigfoot and ask for a face-to-face meeting. I will be honest, the most likely answer to that is “no”. But it doesn’t hurt to ask. As with habituation, it is better to create an ongoing communication telepathically before physical contact is attempted. The purpose is to promote trust and a mutually agreed upon meeting experience.

And, of course, you can understand Bigfoot's reluctance to meet with us.  It's not like we have all that great a track record with respect to treatment of other animal species.  It'd be tragic if, during the first, tentative meeting with a Bigfoot, the researcher thought about the fact that in the state of Alaska, it's legal to hunt wolves from helicopters, and the Bigfoot picked it up during a mind probe.  You can see how that would put a damper on things.

The author concludes by encouraging you to get involved with telepathic Bigfoot research, but he includes a cautionary note:

If you want to start investigating Bigfoot via telepathic means you will have to do it on your own. There are no workshops or classes for this. Development of psychic ability is something that is done quietly, by listening. Get some good books on psychic development. Experiment with your accuracy ratio. Meditate. Before long you’ll be able to discern the unspoken, unheard words that exist beyond the chatter of your own mind.

So, if you're meditating one day, and in your mind you hear the lonesome howling of the Sasquatch, you'll know what's happened.  You've established first contact, and it's now your duty to pursue that link and follow where it goes.  I recommend that your first stop should be a mental health professional.

Cockeyed optimism and the Gospel of Barnabas

I suppose that it's only human to be optimistic.  A 2009 study at the University of Kansas found that 89% of people predicted that the world was going to be as good or better than it is now in five years -- and this pattern held irrespective of ethnic, religious, and national identification.  (Source)

Of course, what "better" means can differ fairly dramatically from person to person.  Witness the recent pronouncement from the powers-that-be in Iran.  (Source)

The whole thing started in 2000, when Turkish authorities broke up a gang that was involved in the illegal acquisition and sale of antiquities.  Amongst the haul was a leather book written in Syriac, a dialect of Aramaic.  Turkish scholars analyzed the book, and announced that it was a copy of the lost Gospel of Barnabas, one of the early Christian converts and a companion of St. Paul.  The document, the Turkish linguists said, could date from the 5th or 6th century.  Its value to the field of archeology was obvious, and the book was transferred under armed guard to Turkey's National Ethnography Museum in Ankara, where it has been under lock and key ever since.

All of this was well and good, and of interest only to religious historians, until the recent announcement that a line in Chapter 41 had been translated as follows:  "God has hidden himself as Archangel Michael ran them (Adam and Eve) out of heaven, (and) when Adam turned, he noticed that at top of the gateway to heaven, it was written 'La elah ela Allah, Mohammad rasool Allah' (Allah is the only God and Mohammad his prophet)."

When I read this, I did an immediate facepalm, because I knew what was coming next.

The Turkish linguists lost no time at all in proclaiming that this manuscript predicted the rise of Islam and the role of Mohammad as its chief exponent, and that it proves that Islam is the One Correct Religion.  Catholic authorities quickly responded, "Now, wait just a moment, here," or words to that effect, and demanded to see the book, a request that is being "considered."  Prominent Catholics rushed to shrug the whole thing off as a non-issue -- Phil Lawler of Catholic Culture calling it a "laughable... challenge to Christianity."  So, basically, all of the people who weighed in on the story reacted with optimism -- proclaiming that circumstances would vindicate whatever view of the world they already had.  But no one had as inadvertently amusing a reaction as did Iran's Basij Press:

"The discovery of the original Barnabas Bible will now undermine the Christian Church and its authority and will revolutionize the religion in the world," a press release from Basij last week states.  "The most significant fact, though, is that this Bible has predicted the coming of Prophet Mohammad and in itself has verified the religion of Islam."

Basij goes on to predict that the "Gospel of Barnabas" will result in the downfall of Christianity.

Okay.  So, what do we actually have here?  A book that only a few people have seen, and whose provenance has yet to be demonstrated conclusively.  That book may have a line that seems to predict the coming of Mohammad, but this has only been verified by people who have a serious vested interest in its being true -- and in any case, the fact of its being a prediction is highly doubtful given that we don't know how old the book actually is.  And now, a government that has shown itself to be relentlessly hostile to Christians throws the whole thing into a press release -- and seriously believes that their pronouncement is going to cause a worldwide exodus from Christianity.

I mean, really.  Pollyanna is one thing, but those folks at Basij really have turned the whole Cockeyed Optimism thing into performance art.   I have this highly amusing mental image of Fred and Vera Fuddle of Topeka, Kansas calling up their minister and saying, "Sorry, Brother Steve, we won't be in church this Sunday -- we read about those folks in Turkey who found a book that says that over the gateway to heaven, it said something about Allah and Mohammad.  No offense, but I'm thinkin' that kind of undermines the church's authority, know what I mean?  Give my regards to Sue Ellen and the kids.  Oh, and one other thing... you know of a nice mosque in the area?"

So, anyway, I think that the Gospel of Barnabas will have little to no effect on anyone, even if the Vatican isn't allowed to send in their experts.  And that's just what we should expect.  89% of people think that the world is going to be as good or better in five years than it is now -- so the Iranians will continue to predict the downfall of all the people they despise, and the rest of us will just go on believing what we've always believed.

Peopling the world with pyromaniac goblins

In many cases, the woo-woo view of the world seems to me to come from a sort of fantasy-land style wishful thinking.  Wouldn't it be lovely if our lives were ruled by the stars?  Isn't it a nice thought that our deceased loved ones could communicate comforting messages to us through the voice of a medium?  Wouldn't it be grand if deep down, there was a pattern, that all of the craziness and chaos we see around us actually meant something?

It seems, however, that there are (at least) two other motivations for espousing a counterfactual view of the world.  One comes from a kind of free-floating paranoia, and that's what gives rise to your conspiracy theorists, the sort of people who think that HAARP (the High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program) caused the Japanese tsunami last year.  A third cause of woo-woo-ism, however, consists of jumping to a wild explanation because the rational, logical alternatives nearer at hand are simply too awful to contemplate.

Consider the recent goblin attacks in Zimbabwe.  (Source)

The news outlet that reported the story, ZimDiaspora, tells of the homestead inhabited by the Sithole and Muyambo families, which had been plagued by "mysterious occurrences."  Stones were thrown at family members by an unseen hand.  Dirt was put into cooking pots, ruining the meals.  And now, four buildings in the homestead have been burned to the ground, leaving the families "sleep(ing) in the open, while the few belongings they managed to salvage from the raging fire are heaped outside."

And what, pray tell, could wreak all of this havoc upon this poor family?  The answer, of course, is:  goblins.

Or a magic spell.  Something like that.  One of the household's members, 52-year-old Sarah Muyambo, said that magic was definitely a possibility, because a "traditional healer" had told her that her son, Enoch (29) had "laid his hands on some money-making magical charms and things are now backfiring."  Of course, another member of the homestead said he had seen "snake-like creatures wearing sunglasses, a suit and a pair of shoes" near the houses, so maybe it could be that.

Or, maybe not.

Let's quote another bit of the news story:  "Whenever one young male member of the family, Taso Sithole (16) entered each of the huts and as soon as he came out, that hut would unexpectedly go up in smoke and this happened on all the four structures that were burnt at the homestead."

So, what do you think is the most likely explanation here, for the tragic burning of the buildings in the homestead?

1)  Goblins did it.
2)  It was because a money-making magic charm backfired.
3)  A snake-like creature wearing shoes and sunglasses set the fires.
4)  It was a teenage boy, who amazingly enough was on the scene every time it happened.

Okay, I've been a teacher for 25 years, and I've known a lot of teenage boys -- I even helped to raise two of them.  And one thing that seems universal is that teenage boys like to set things on fire.  That a teenage boy would burn down four houses in his own homestead does seem pretty extreme, even by ordinary teenage-boy-standards -- honestly, it seems to point to a dangerous pyromania, something considerably beyond the ordinary enjoyment of watching stuff burn up.  And I suppose that on some level you can understand why Taso Sithole's family isn't all that eager to consider this possibility.  But seriously -- goblins?  Snakes wearing shoes?  Magic spells?

It can't be easy to realize that someone in your family is deranged.  But it seems like, just for safety's sake, it is better to confront the painful truth than it is to make stuff up, peopling the world with pyromaniac goblins so that you don't have to face reality.  To quote Carl Sagan:  "Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy."