[ExI] Belief in maths (was mind body dualism)

[Mike Dougherty]

On Tue, Jul 6, 2010 at 2:56 AM, Ben Zaiboc <bbenzai at yahoo.com> wrote:
> If I can assume that by 'pure maths', you mean logic, you seem to be saying that people who have absolute certainty (I'm making another assumption that this means "think that it's overwhelmingly likely") that there is no such thing as either a soul or psi, have come to this conclusion by logical reasoning, rather than, say, lack of evidence to the contrary.

I originally meant statistics and probability.  I have to include
logic because pure math is a broad category.  I have a difficult time
understanding absolute certainty no matter how it is reached.  You can
asymptotically approach certainty by way of reasoned arguments and
scientific methods.  I feel that even if you have seen a coin flip
result in heads 99 times in a row, you cannot state with absolute
certainty that the 100th toss will also be heads.  (at least until you
have shown both sides of the coin to be heads)  In the case of the no
soul or no psi argument, nobody is able to verify the other side of
the coin.  So we can observe many runs of the same result, but I don't
rule out the possibility that there may may eventually be an
unexpected result.

>
> Don't forget that 'no soul' and 'no psi' are the null hypotheses.  Anyone who claims that either of these things exists needs to provide evidence or a  convincing logical argument.  Anyone who doesn't, doesn't.  No logic (or maths) needed.
>

Agreed.  Claiming that either or both are Bullshit by lack of
existential evidence looks to me like a matter of personal belief (ie:
faith)   No logic needed.

> Or are you the type of person who, when told that there are no hypercubical golden dragons living underground on the far side of Titan, says "Ah, but you can't prove that, can you?!?!"

No.  I am the type of person who stores that statement relative to how
much I trust your ability to make truthful statements.  I remain
skeptical until I go underground on the far side of Titan.  Even after
finding no hypercubical golden dragons there, I reserve the
possibility that they may have only gone out for lunch while I was
visiting.