Bub, you are on the wrong message board if you think we should respect everybodies beliefs, when said beliefs are ignorant.
The motto of THIS message board isn’t “A nice place to chat about your beliefs, where everybody respects you and is nice and friendly”
Have you read any of Cecils columns?
Go away if you can’t handle it.
Ilsa has a philosophy? Now I’m picturing the chick from Casablanca standing beside Bill and Ted while they tell Socrates that “All we are is dust in the wind, dude.”
I am in the Natural Sciences, philosophy is my sworn enemy!
Even ethics?
I go out of my way to torture small animals.
(Warning for the humor impaired: this is a joke.)
Ahhh…
But have you ever tried capturing their little spirits on camera?
“So, Socrates, we meet again! There can be only one!”
What crawled up your ass and died?
And did you capture its spirit on camera?
Not all beliefs deserve respect. Some people believe that God made the white man to rule over all other races. Do you respect that belief? I assume not. Yet that belief has just as much factual, replicapable support as CheekyMonkey’s demons. Which is to say, none at all.
Now, certainly, believing in demons is more respectable than believing that race is a valid indicator of human worth, but only on a moral or ethical plane. Intellectually, it is not at all worthy of respect, because we have better answers, provable answers, for all of the things historically attrubuted to demons and spirits. I’m not saying there’s no room in the world for faith or spirituality, but only after logic and science have been exhausted. By way of example, there’s no excuse for believing in a six day creation in this day and age, not with what we know about astronomy, physics, and the birth of the universe. But if you want to ask, “Why was there a Big Bang?” science doesn’t really have an answer to that. “God” is as good an answer as any.
Considering that, after 5000 plus years of recorded history, there’s still no concrete proof for the exsistence of a ghost or spirit that doesn’t amount to anything more than a bad dream and a skin condition, I don’t really see how much clearer the issue could be.
I hope that’s not what they are teaching you in your school, since it is inaccurate.
Tars Tarkas, biologist.
Come on dude. It was a joke. It’s a running joke in the Bio department. We have a set of particularly ditzy Philosphers in the Liberal Arts department.
I am aware that Kant, Bacon, Lakatos, Platt etc. are important figures in the history of science. :rolleyes:
Fair enough. I know that anecdotal evidence doesn’t go well around here, which is why I didn’t mention it before. I might have brought it up if the original thread had been in IMHO instead of GQ.
Still, I think Epimetheus was an asshole unnecessarily. I know it’s the Pit, but assholish behavior is not required, just allowed.
I actually agree with you. We usually disagree, but I don’t have anything against you personally.
Cool! Does this mean we can be civil? Because I’m all about that.
Were we not being civil? I’d rather have friends than enemies.
Stop being an idiot.
Don’t move - I’ll get my polaroid 
Ahhh, but a fear of capital letters can be quite debilitating. 
Ilsa: As Philster essentially said, “Has a spirit ever been captured on camera?” is a factual question in the same way that “Did Walter Mondale win the 1984 presidential election?” is a factual question. They both have factual answers. The OP was perfectly suited to GQ; I really don’t understand your beef.