Science Skeptic Charles Fort on This Day in History

This Day in History: Charles Fort was born on this day in 1874. He is best known for his "Book of the Damned." Fort was a skeptic of science, and his book produced numerous instances of occurrences that science just could not explain, or were just ignored by science. Such instances described were falling frogs, fishes, and inorganic materials, spontaneous human combustion, ball lightning (a term explicitly used by Fort), poltergeist events, unaccountable noises and explosions, levitation, unidentified flying objects, unexplained disappearances, giant wheels of light in the oceans, and animals found outside their normal ranges. He offered many reports of out-of-place artifacts (OOPArts), strange items found in unlikely locations.

"Fort had long criticized scientists for their methods of investigating paranormal phenomena, suggesting that they let their beliefs influence which data they accepted as valid and which they ignored...He also enjoyed attacking scientists whenever they made predictions or proposed theories that later turned out to be false. In response, scientists and other intellectuals ridiculed Fort’s work, though it was popular with the general public." Source

"Witchcraft always has a hard time, until it becomes established and changes its name. We hear much of the conflict between science and religion, but our conflict is with both of these. Science and religion always have agreed in opposing and suppressing the various witchcrafts. Now that religion is inglorious, one of the most fantastic of transferences of worships is that of glorifying science, as a beneficent being. It is the attributing of all that is of development, or of possible betterment to science. But no scientist has ever upheld a new idea, without bringing upon himself abuse from other scientists. Science has done its utmost to prevent whatever science has done."

"Every science is a mutilated octopus. If its tentacles were not clipped to stumps, it would feel its way into disturbing contacts."

The Fortean Times magazine is still being published.

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