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Very good article on cynicism towards scientific claims and its origin.

"The community of scientists has a legitimate claim to trustworthiness that other social institutions, such as religions and political movements, lack. The structure of scientific inquiry involves procedures, such as experiments and open debate, that are strikingly successful at revealing truths about the world. All other things being equal, a rational person is wise to defer to a geologist about the age of the earth rather than to a priest or to a politician."

Here.

Raise a dog, teaching him a trick.
Then, when the dog is middle aged, scorn him every time he performs the trick and deny him the reward he is used to.

You are going to end up with a very resentful and confused dog.

If my terrible metaphor didn't explain it, people are raised to believe what they are told without seeing any proof at all. It is how any of use thought the easter bunny or Santa was real. Unlike good 'ole Saint Nick and EB, what they learn has to do with the physical reality they live in as well as the fate of their mind once their body inevitably fails them. s**t like that is WAY more important that a fat guy who gives you free stuff.

So they cling to it. Anything that comes remotely close to compromising their full, learned view that has bearing on something that important is seen as a threat. It is regarded with the same importance as their own lives, making survival instinct a root cause of their denials of science.

Glad to be here and part of a group that is
A: Interesting
B: Full of people I am not exploiting for links to Sailor Moon episodes

I'm going to chime in with it's sad. I think the people who prmote our culture are to blame. Not just the Fawells and Robertsons, but the people who put on 100 things like "Most Haunted" and "Ghost Hunteres" to every one "Mythbuster". It's no surprise they defer to psuedoscience if that's mostly what they are exposed to.

Or when they see something but it just so happens that the camera was just a liiiiiittle slow?

The best is how every episode contains the inevitable "Can you please make your presence known?"

Seriously. If I died and haunted a place, and someone walked into my haunt with a camera and asked the air a question so stupid, I'd possess him and force him to eat his camera.