The Explanatory Filter (EF) used on the Sci-Fi Channel!

All too often I hear cries that the Explanatory Filter is not used by anyone, anywhere. I have always responded that the people who say that do not know how to determine design in the absence of watching the designer at work.

But anyway, the Sci-Fi Channel has a show called "Ghost Hunters". Their methodology on the show captures/ models the EF.

That is with every phenomenon they observe they first try to explain it without calls to "ghosts". IOW they set out to debunk the claim(s) of "ghost(s)".

If they have high EMF readings they try to find a normal electrical source.

If doors open and close in the absence of a person they try to find some "natural" cause.

If shadows move across a room they try to find a "natural" cause.

Only once all possible "natural" causes are ruled out do they come to a paranormal inference.

That is the EF in action!

You make observations, you gather data and evidence, then you (try to) explain what you observed as well as the data and evidence you have gathered.

With the EF you try to explain it fisrt via regularity, then via chance, then via intentional design. It forces you through those first two lines of defense- regularity and chance- guarding against the design inference.

That is what the "Ghost Hunter"'s do- they try to debunk a claim by running it through those defenses- they use observation, electronic surveillance, thermo imaging, and EMF tracking to gather the data and evidence, put that together with their observations, and then try to explain every piece of the pie via easily explainable natural processes.

If and only if those options have run out, and some recognizable pattern exists (specification) do they attribute some phenomenon to a "ghost".