I want to believe.

According to some, I should be ashamed of my interest in cryptozoology. I am well-educated and intelligent; I am therefore expected to hold the entire subject in contempt. If I do not, some people insist on holding me in contempt for what they see as my credulity. After all, I am a science writer. Skepticism is requisite in someone whose profession is founded upon the scientific process. And yes, when it comes to contentious topics like cryptozoology or the paranormal, I am a skeptic.

But I am also a writer. I like interesting things. And though I may be a skeptic, I am not interested in skepticism. Pure skepticism is boring. Just as believers sometimes make themselves ridiculous by closing their minds to scientific fact, skeptics can be every bit as obnoxious, small-minded, and ridiculous as the people whose beliefs they despise.

It's true that most of the A-list cryptozoology legends -- the Jersey devil, Sasquatch, Nessie -- are absurd. You think that plesiosaurs are still hanging around, looking exactly as they did tens of millions of years ago? You think they've been living, dying, feeding, and breeding in great enough numbers to keep from going extinct, while somehow remaining undetected within the extremely limited limits of a freshwater lake? And they still, despite our vigorous search for evidence, will not give us so much as a single scale off of their backs? You can see where I'm going with this.

Image from thinkatheist.com

On the other hand, the desire to believe it all  -- the desire to believe that there is more in heaven and earth than is dreamt of, etc. etc. -- is completely understandable. That impulse has driven a huge amount of legitimate scientific discovery. And although I don't believe that a species of plesiosaur has made its habitat in the chill waters of a Scotland loch, I do believe that it is far, far more interesting to imagine that it has, than to dwell on the fact that it hasn't.

And I think the fact that we still go out and look for evidence, the fact that a great number of people persist in these beliefs, says something about human psychology. What it says about human psychology I haven't yet determined, but I bet it's fascinating.