[extropy-chat] Re:John Wright Finds God

[John K Clark]

-<john-c-wright at sff.net>

> The scientific method is concerned with measureable aspects of our
> sense-impressions.

If by "supernatural" you mean a person having an unusual, even bizarre,
subjective experience then I have absolutely no difficulty believing you;
but usually something like a burning bush is also involved and rapidly
oxidizing vegetable matter is measurable.

Whenever a famous person gets assassinated you can be certain that in the
next few day dozens of people will come forward and say that they had a
vision it would happen the night before; but for reasons not entirely clear
they never bother to tell anyone about it until after the poor man was dead.
Odd don't you think?

"Dirk Bruere" <dirk at neopax.com>

> That's why chemistry developed out of alchemy.

Isaac Newton, the greatest scientist who ever lived, was an alchemist and
there was nothing wrong with that; at the time there was no reason to think
you couldn't turn lead into gold if you just used the right chemicals. Today
we know better.

 > As for psi phenomena, there is plenty of experimental evidence.

The compelling evidence was not gathered using good scientific methods and
the evidence that was gathered using good scientific methods is not
compelling. Don't you think that's odd? If fortune tellers, psychic healers,
and Taro card readers didn't have such stellar reputations for moral
rectitude I might almost think fraud was involved .

We could have had this exact same conversation 100 years ago and not change
one word; in fact people back then did have such conversations, and in the
next century despite huge advances in science and technology there is not
one more bit of evidence that psi is real than there was back then. Do you
find that odd?  I find that odd.

  John K Clark     jonkc at att.net