"we make up "explanations" that are themselves infinitely more inexplicable than the things they're supposed to explain. To me, that's irrational. "

The way humans interpret phenomena they can't understand is partly cultural and also perhaps due the way we've evolved. I was at a zoology conference recently where this was discussed in relation to bigfoot and lake monsters, it's not a new idea and has been floating around for donkeys years but is still interesting and applies to many unexplained phenomena.

Firstly: Cultural. Two thousand years ago, when a bunch of desert tribesmen in the middle east witnessed an event in the sky they described it in terms they understood; wheels of fire. The same event witnessed two millennia later would have been described in different terms: UFO's. Then: telepathy, now quantum fields. Twenty years time: something new.

Second: Evolutionary. In evolutionary terms, we're all still wired for life on the plains and forests of Africa. Our limbic system is on constant alert for predators and we are programmed to see patterns (pareidolia)... many societies have a long history of seeing hairy folk in the woods, beasts in lakes etc.

Now as the man said: I want to believe. Truth is, we are talking about a wide variety of different processes both physical, cognitive and mental that require a very broad range of skills to objectively record and analyse. Luckily we have such a system, but it requires evidence.

Donuel: That link is interesting, but I'm unconvinced (that said, I don't understand the methodology at all so that's surprising). An alternative view here: http://skepdic.com/globalconsciousness.html All seems a little suspicious to me, but I'm used to dealing with fossils and rocks which have a certain physicality about them ;-) I'll read a bit more later.