<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>On Jan 22, 2010, Damien Broderick wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Verdana; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; ">This misuses the word. If ESP is real, there is no reason to suppose that it functions by abrogating the laws of physics; far more economical to suppose that we do not yet fully understand all those laws. In the 19th century, the radioactive heating of the sun was not supernatural, just unexplained.</span></blockquote><div><br></div>There is an important difference. In the 19th century there was an excellent reason for thinking something important and fundamental is missing; according to the then known laws of physics the sun couldn't be older than 50 million years and was probably closer to 10. But even then it was known that life was far older than that, and it was known from geological evidence that the Earth itself is several billion years old. Something didn't fit, the Earth can't be older than the sun.</div><div><br></div><div>Nobody has produced evidence that doesn't fit known laws in the ESP issue. Or at least nobody has if you don't count one 36 year old paper that both the present editors of Nature and the editors of 36 years ago, if they are still alive, would agree to put on their list of the top 5 most embarrassing papers Nature has ever published. EVER!</div><div><br></div><div> John K Clark <br><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Verdana; font-size: medium; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></span></blockquote></div><br></body></html>