Skeptic Culture: Traditions of Disbelief in
New Mexico
Author: William J. Dewan
Academic studies of paranormal belief traditions
provide a myriad of perspectives on their genesis, dissemination, and meaning
in various cultural contexts. However, these studies have too often neglected
to examine the social role of disbelief and its impact on popular conceptions
of the paranormal or anomalous. In this study, I examine ‘traditions of
disbelief’ as part of a broader folk spectrum of paranormal belief language in
contemporary American society, with a focus on interviews conducted with a community
of self-identified ‘skeptics’ in Albuquerque, New Mexico. I sought to find
patterns, codings, and themes in their responses to a variety of topics
including religion, the paranormal, education, and the role of skepticism in
the modern world. Individuals provided Ideological commonalities that were
indicative of their shared ideas about the various dangers faced within 21st
century American culture. Specifically, these skeptics positioned themselves as
localized defenders of rationalism and empiricism in the American Southwest
while treating paranormal beliefs as byproducts of a broader national increase
in religious fundamentalism, irrational thought, and deficiencies in science
education. Furthermore, skeptic rhetoric repeatedly presents images of
epistemological warfare between skeptics and paranormal advocates. I contend
that this overarching concern has less to do with paranormal beliefs per se and
more to do with the extent to which alternative, competing models of physical
reality are allowable in public discourse.
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