Uhm… isn’t skepticism the main weapon in the fight against ignorance? To not take things at face value? To my knowledge, that is how truth is uncovered.
By the way, Lekatt, I noticed you never bothered answering my last question. Smooth. I am a practicing Wiccan, and I would love to believe in all aspects of the occult. I’ve had some pretty strange things happen to me in my lifetime, I’ve made connections and known things that there is no earthly way of having known. I don’t count myself as a complete disbeliever in this circumstance. However, you’re making no ground for yourself at all in ignoring people who present valid questions and not ever making a quantifiable statement. I should also say that I think JVP and JE are… uhm… things I can’t say outside the pit. I’ll side with the South Park writers on this one.
I believe your claims to be total bullshit, yes. So convince me I’m wrong. Give me evidence. Oh, wait, we’ve tried that, haven’t we.
I cannot say what Cecil thinks. Cecil’s brain operates at a much higher level than anybody else in the world, seeing as he is the world’s most intelligent person. But as has been pointed out, The Straight Dope exists to fight ignorance. So you figure it out.
It’s not for skeptics only – it’s for people who read The Straight Dope and want to fight ignorance and/or learn. I do have to admit, though, that I have seen no evidence that you fall into any of these categories. So I guess I’ll ask: What drew you to this message board? Are you a Straight Dope fan? Or did you come here for some other reason? I’m curious.
This board is not for skeptics only. There are plenty of people here who believe scientifically unproveable things. Being a Christian, I am one of them. There are loads of debates/discussions/exchanges that involve a number of different beliefs.
I think the reason you are having a hard time here is that you are not even considering the scientific explanation of psychics, instead you dismiss it, without providing evidence for this assertion. You are also making claims that support your assertion, but you aren’t providing us with evidence (such as the houdini thing, or the Randi thing). I think that if you said, “I believe in psychics” and left it as a matter of faith, not very many people would be questioning you. Instead you have delegated who can see the “truth” to those who believe in psychics-which is a self fulfilling prophecy and not very convincing.
You claimed to “call” the gender of people’s children 19 of the 20 times you tried. That is 95% accuracy, out of those readings. You claimed they called you “Yoda” for your ability to do so. You claimed to call seven coin-tosses in a row, an act that has a statistical probability of around 1%. You talk about playing psychic’s “games” where you pass around objects and tell the history of it just from touching it, claiming you had at least one notable success. You claimed all these things… Are you now claiming you did not do these things? Or are you claiming that they’re a statistical fluke? Or what?
Huh? I’m guessing you typo’ed there, because I doubt you’re going this far and suddenly claiming there is no such thing as psychics, now. There isn’t any twisting needed with how confused some of your posts seem :dubious:
As for other posts:
Argumentum ad numerum. Again. The popularity of an idea is in no way conclusive of the idea’s accuracy. I could explain it in detail again, but I don’t feel much like repeating myself, especially on something you aren’t paying attention to.
Intelligently, using facts, reasoning, finding evidence to back up arguments, not resorting to logical fallicies, and the grand goal of fighting ignorance? I think you’re actually right, for once, if not in the way you intended.
There are plenty of people here who believe things that are not scientifically proven. Common sense, however, tells us that we can’t expect others to believe our beliefs if we can present no evidence to support it, and that we should possibly reconsider those beliefs if evidence is shown that contradicts them. It’s much tougher than clinging adamantly to your beliefs in the face of the facts… But it’s honest.
It is not a “power” or a “gift”, though some call it that. It is a skill, one that can be learned by almost anyone, provided they are willing to study and practice.
—It is not a “power” or a “gift”, though some call it that. It is a skill, one that can be learned by almost anyone, provided they are willing to study and practice.—
Sounds like that seminar Michael Shermer went to at The Cayce A.R.E where a normal distribution of scores at the Zener test was interpreted as “a few people have positive ESP (got more right than the mean score predicts), a few have negative ESP (got less right than the mean score predicts)” and eveyone else was clustered around the mean. You get to keep trying until you get a high score, at which point it’s declared that you have improved. Unless, of course, you get a very very low score, in which case you improved… just on your “negative” ESP.
Apos-Are you talking about Shermer’s book Why People Believe Strange Things? If so, I thought that book was good-it has been a while since I read it though.
So now you’re arguing semantics in the hope we won’t notice you not answering the question?
Just re-phrase everything, replacing “power” or “ability” with “skill.” Such as, “you claimed to have a 95% accuracy when using your psychic ‘skill.’” You did make claims about your “skill,” including giving several examples. Now you’re claiming you don’t have any “skill?” And that it comes and goes, so sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Again, what is the difference between this and guessing?
