WHATS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FORTEANS AND NEW AGERS OR SKEPTICS?
As I see it, most New Agers are willing to accept almost any kind of occult or bizarre phenomenon without questioning its validity. They are credulous to the extreme, ‘true believers’ in the existence of the paranormal. It provides emotional security for them. Most so-called ‘Skeptics,’ on the other hand, at least of the CSICOP variety, are also true believers – in the nonexistence or nonprobability of the paranormal. (And usually doctrines like humanism, materialism, and logical postivism.) They can be dogmatic in their defense of science, the closure of knowledge, or the impossibility of certain phenomena. They have decided, a priori, that any things not explained by science will soon be. Doubting science puts their faith – in science – in jeopardy. Their duty is not impartial investigation, but instead ‘debunking’ and propagandizing. This often results in a “New Inquisition” of heretical scientific thinkers. A Fortean is more properly a ‘zetetic’ – when it comes to paranormal phenom
