X-Files leads American crusade against science

If you've never seen The X-Files, chances are you've been abducted by either aliens or an Ivy League education. With an estimated 20 million devoted fans, the Fox series is one of the most widely watched television shows in the world (behind Baywatch, obviously). This summer's blockbuster, The X-Files: Fight the Future, rode into movie theaters on the cover of Newsweek and continues to recruit new X-Philes to the ever-increasing total.

Much of The X-Files' popularity can be traced to its tandem of FBI agents: Fox Mulder, a credulous Oxford-trained parapsychologist, and Dana Scully, a skeptical medical doctor with a background in physics. Together, Mulder and Scully investigate a wide range of paranormal cases, pausing regularly for set-piece "skeptics vs. believers" debates. But The X-Filesas a whole barely equivocates about the existence of supernatural beings. Even though Mulder and Scully never manage to close their cases--having to file them X for "unexplained"--the viewer usually gets a glimpse of the monster or let in on the secret. There's never any real possibility that it's all a hoax.

This is where The X-Files leaves solid ground and maddens skeptics. Save for on TV, no Mulder-type has ever furnished convincing evidence for any paranormal occurrence, while real-life Scullys have exposed countless hoaxes. Yet the world of The X-Files overflows with unbelievable creatures: vampires, demons, angels, UFOs--everything except delusional eye-witnesses.

But what world do X-Philes think they live in? Studies suggest that a program as captivating as The X-Files can shape public opinion. The show seems to have convinced many Americans that they live in a world regularly visited by UFOs, controlled by powers that don't want them to know it. According to Skeptical Inquirer 's Matthew Nisbet, who spoke last week to the Yale College Society for Humanists, Atheists, and Agnostics, The X-Files has "helped inspire historic levels of interest in conspiracies and the paranormal." It's a formula for pseudo-science.

Of course, it has long been intellectually fashionable to find skeptical, belief-withholding science distasteful and to grope after more wishy-washy modes of thought. There's even a special academic word for this: postmodernism. The X-Files is ideal postmodern TV: it's witty, it's P.C., and it undermines science at every turn while vindicating all varieties of magical thinking.

But, believe it or not, pseudo- and anti-science are dangerous--they divert our attention from serious scientific issues. Science is the only major interest group in the U.S. without a lobby; in the wake of constant paranormal propaganda, its already limited funding threatens to go towards sheer kookiness. For example, the UFO-crazed Society for Scientific Exploration's recent report calling for government funding for UFO research won influential coverage in most of the major media.

Similarly, The X-Files keeps Americans hot on the trail of an evanescent government conspiracy. According to a Gallup poll, 31 percent of Americans believe an "actual" alien craft crashed at Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. Another poll indicates that over 70 percent believe in some kind of government cover-up of UFO landings. We may still be sniffing out conspiracies when the ozone layer disappears.

The promotion of mystery-mongering over real science has other detrimental effects. Experts estimate that only 5 percent of the U.S. population is scientifically aware (that is, appreciates the scientific method and the evaluation of evidence), a number barely higher than the percentage of working scientists. In a democracy, as policy choices become more complex and inextricably tied to empirical knowledge, Americans unable to sort scientifically valid claims from misinformation will cast dangerous votes.

Of course, The X-Files merely reflects in microcosm a much larger problem. Today, the breach between scientists and the media is all but complete. The scientifically-trained reporter is a precious rarity, the scientifically sympathetic media conglomerate CEO unheardof. As the millennium approaches, we can only expect paranormal propaganda to increase and to win more coverage and followers.

The X-Files might do something to address this serious problem. By simply letting Scully and science win now and again, it might teach its viewers an object lesson in evaluating evidence. Americans aren't so dumb: Carl Sagan's hit series Cosmos proved that there's a market in this country for real science, properly presented.

The X-Files could help make us sane again. Yet it seems it will keep pushing us over the edge. UFOs, you see, sell.

Chris Mooney is a senior in Silliman.

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