Do you believe seeing is believing?
Many years ago, I was involved in a discussion regarding the existence of ghosts.
The person I was arguing with was considerably older than I was and absolutely refused to countenance any argument in favour of the possibility of spectral beings.
Me, being a paid-up member of the awkward squad, had decided to take the opposing view, but I was not getting the best of the argument. That was until he made the statement “seeing is believing”.
Now I knew this gentleman had not travelled outside of the UK, so I asked him a simple question. I asked if he had ever seen the Eiffel Tower?
His reply was no, he had not. I put it to him that he must doubt its existence, as he had never seen it.
This brought forth a barrage of protest, claiming I was being stupid, as many people had seen the Eiffel Tower, and he himself had seen photographic evidence of its existence.
I pointed out that many people had claimed to have seen a ghost, and there was some photographic evidence.
This was dismissed as people’s imagination, and doctored photographs.
I informed him that any photograph can be falsified. Even ones claiming to be of the Eiffel Tower. I had already been in the printing industry for some years, and I knew that even in that pre-digital age, any illustration could be tampered with.
I pointed out that he was happy to dismiss any evidence of ghosts existing, but willing to believe the existence of something that he had never seen, because he believed in it, and had seen it in photograph.
He wanted it both ways.
Well, the argument was never resolved, and he remained sceptical about the existence of ghosts. I knew that I could never change his mind on that subject, but I think I may have rattled his belief in seeing is believing.
Just because you haven’t seen something, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
So do I believe in Ghosts? Well, I have never seen one.
But, when I look up into the night sky, and see the millions of suns, stars and galaxies, and I am told that it this has all have come from a small particle exploding and expanding into “nothing”, I think, well if that is possible, anything is possible.
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