How long until we can finally admit that there just ain’t anything out there to find? People have been making these claims since before recorded history. We’re still waiting for a single shred of solid evidence supporting these claims. How much longer do we have to wait before we can write the supernatural off and still be a “true” skeptic? Maybe I’m just impatient, but six thousand years seems like more than enough time to come up with something.
Is this your professional opinion? Care to give some credentials?
Or is it just a cheap shot?
I asked for evidence not impatience.
People have been talking about god-like destructive forces for over six-thousand years, too. In 1945 we realized them.
I’m willing to either wait until the end of my life or until my experiences can be satisfactorily explained.
I see the mountains outside my window. I have not touched them, but I trust they are there, and not an illusion. I get concentric validation, but I have no way of knowing if the other sees what I am seeing. I trust my experience.
That’s what I’m asking for, too. Where is it?
What? That makes no sense at all.
I can explain your experiences right now: you imagined them.
I’m not saying that it’s automatically the correct explanation. It’s just the most likely one. At the very least, it’s considerably more likely than the hypothesis you put forward, which directly contravenes most everything we know about the physical laws that govern the universe.
I don’t.
And I don’t mean I don’t trust your experience. I mean I don’t trust my experience. I am well aware of how trivially easy it is to mislead the human senses, even by accident, and most especially when the person doing the misleading is the same as the person being misled. I know first hand the almost infinite capacity we all have for self-deception. And considering how badly I want the supernatural to exsist, I am correspondingly more vigilant about accepting claims about the supernatural that are not supported by objective (so much as it is possible to prove anything objectivly) evidence. The experiences of any one person are not objective evidence. Even if that one person is me.
And if that’s how I feel about my own perceptions of the inexplicable, possibly supernatural events I’ve personally witnessed, you can imagine how I feel about the inexplicable, possibly supernaturaly events you’ve witnessed.
If I were you, I’d doublecheck on those mountains, too. Can’t be too careful.
I hardly think so. More like the worst, I would have thought. Each time they contribute to a discussion, they must be aware that people are watching them carefully, to see who they will “favour” with a personal response, who they will “knock down”, “ignore”, etc.
It’s always tough when someone is elevated from the ranks to a position of leadership, especially for those who remember them as “rankers”. Scores to settle, bruised egos, flagrant injustices, etc., etc.
One of the most important reasons for a continuous supply of new blood is that any historical ill-feeling is constantly diluted and energies are not diverted to these unedifying and life-sapping issues.
SnakeSpirit, you’re comments about the mental health of Czarcasm are pathetic. If you think he’s a nutcase, just tell him.
Sorry, but I don’t see it that way. I knew Gaudere and Uncle Beer before they ever went through the thing with the goat, the gerbils, and the five-gallon can of Crisco… and found them interesting board members before, during, and in UB’s case after their moderating thing. In fact, I’d greatly enjoy seeing more substantive posts from Gaudere – the board lost something valuable in terms of content when she shifted to administrative and moderation duties.
If you see it as playing favorites, that’s your business; I cannot tell you what to think. But I very much disagree. (I do agree with your final paragraph, divorced from the lead-in, though; there’s an important message in there for staff and membership alike.)
Sauce for the goose, m’man.
Aeschines, Some of us don’t mind discussions on “paranormal” topics at all, but first it’s required that we llearn the difference between proof and evidence. That is covered in Urbane Sophistication 201.
Snakespirit, I speak to you from a sort of pill-induced state of mental health. Just a suggestion: If you are going to apologize to someone for bringing up the question of his/her mental stability in public, don’t write a long post discussing in detail all the reasons that you brought up the question in the first place before typing:
You remind me of the former sister-in-law who called me to tell me that she never wanted to speak to me again.
Oh well. What you say to other posters here is none of my fucking business. I should have just shut my mouth and hoped you would work it out on your own. I shouldn’t have said anything about it in this thread. It was a serious error in judgment on my part and I apologize to you for it.
Great call.
I just say, “Take this shit to The Pit.” Never had any troubles. You try it and see.
Good point, Zoe. Sometimes my stupidity amazes even me (but only in retrospect!).
As I thought. A cheap shot.
Spare us.
Amen to that. She was an extraordinary debater. She was instrumental in shaping many of my own views. Her arguments were unadorned with cheap rhetoric, and compelling by virtue of their plainness. Plus, she used beautiful turns of phrase like, “I’m feeling a mite peckish.”
Yup. As cheap a shot as you threw at Czarcasm. Only briefer.
And she’s hot.
What comments about mental health?
Oh never mind, you’re evidently seeing what you want to see instead of what I’m saying. Hallucinating.
There’s no sense responding to you.
These:
Remember posting that? It was yesterday, in case you’ve already forgotten.
My opinion of you takes a step down with every post you make. You’re not just irrational and dimwitted, you’re downright slimy.
But he was being sincere. No, really. I mean it. Really.
:rolleyes:
Notice, I said health, not mental health, in case you can’t read.
I’m not here for a popularity contest, so your opinion of me is fine with me. I’m here to conquer ignorance, even if I have to do it one post at a time.
Slimey? EVERYONE thinks that snakes are slimy. It’s a common misconception. We’re just smoooth… 