That was marginally better than your earlier credulolameoid droolings, but it still wants something. Couldn’t you work some of that woo-woo crap into it? Maybe you could threaten to unleash a negative energy vortex on me, or fuck up the color balance of my chakras or something New Agey like that? Maybe you should have worked an incantation in there somewhere. A couple of Lovecraftesque references to Elder Powers might have improved it too. The only thing woo-woos have going for them is that they provide some slight entertainment in their sillier moments, and you’re falling down on the job in that respect. You can believe that horseshit is gold with all your heart, numbskull, but it is still horseshit; and you’re standing in it up to your chin.
That was due to unfortunate wording on my part. What I meant was: finding an explanation for the experiences we might think are due to ghostly activity, not the ghosts themselves…eh, never mind. I don’t think we will ever see eye to eye on this subject and I’m content just to leave it at that.
You hear a strange noise late at night and assume that it’s either a tree branch scratching on the window, squirrels in the attic, or just your own imagination. I assume the same but once I have ruled out all the obvious sources for the strange noise, I will sometimes allow the possibility that it is of paranormal origin into the equation. Not that I go around thinking every strange sound or occurence is due to ghostly activity, but occasionally I do consider it a very real possibility.
What the fuck does paranormal even mean? How can you tell if anything is paranormal? If you know what it is, does that mean it’s not paranormal anymore?
It’s always nice when yoiu read the thread that a new cliche has emerged from.
Things are much more confusing otherwise.
What a joke! There has never been such a civilization on which to base this assertion.
This is the Pit, dumbfuck, and there’s no debate here. The OP was one of the more aggressively ignorant and downright nasty posts I’ve read in awhile. It was a slam sans debate, and I have replied with a Fuck You sans “debating points.” If you want to join in a debate, go to GD.
Got it? Good. Now turn on your Mickey Mouse night light and get some sleep.
Do you consider it a very real possibility that the strange noise could be the sound of Santa coming down your chimney? No? Why not? Why is that not a very real possibility? Why is that less of a possibility than ghosts?
My point is that, once you’ve accepted the possiblity that something for which there is no proof is nonetheless a very real possibility, you no longer have the tools necessary for a rational investigation of your world. You are now open to believing almost any bit of nonsense. You have no way of distinguishing the real from the loopy.
Correct, there has never been such a civilization, because humanity hasn’t been able to shed its reliance on blind belief. More’s the pity.
Unlike your brilliance and kind words.
It’s morning. Wake up.
Nasty? Of course, it was meant to be nasty. Ignorant? No. I’m actually pretty well read on the paranormal. I found it interesting for a while. That is also how I know that it is horseshit; but, I didn’t come here to debate the topic either. I’ve done that, ad nauseum, other places over the years. I came here to vent my spleen at airy-fairies, creduloids, woo-woo’s and other determinedly irrational goofballs. You not only fit into that category, but you also seem to be pretty much of a douchebag into the bargain. Actually, I take that back, as I’ve no call to insult something as useful as a douchebag by likening you to one. Now go fondle your crystals and visualize having a nice aday.
I disagree with your statement. Indeed, blind faith can be construed as a weakness, however in my personal experience, it takes significantly more courage to walk blindly into something, than to see the path clearly. It’s hardly weakness. Faith itself is no more crippling than our own physical limitations, it’s not as if you removed all faith and religion, that all of a sudden man could, say, fly. Science, like faith has its flaws. There are some things that science cannot explain, likewise in faith, as much as the two communities decide they are disparate, they are virtually welded together. Science could not exist without faith, and faith would not remain without science. Only a cursory glance at the root of both religion and science is necessary to show that both things are based upon the words and concepts of men who believed in them. The difference between Boyle’s Law and The Gospel of John is a matter of shelf space. Further, one hardly needs evidence of feelings, to know they exist. Certianly, one can dissect the root of feelings and emotions to their roots in brain chemistry, but what science can’t do, is tell you why those feelings and emotions exist in the first place. Faith, to some, does just that.
Where then, did the convention you speak of, originate? What is it, in your opinion that makes humans more ethical than any other animals?
We disagree again. I think that those who only look for what they can see, have narrowed their search too far. Usually, it is true, that when you hear hoofbeats, you should look for horses, not zebras, but those hoofbeats may belong to a centaur, too.
I don’t think that responsible scientists have ever instructed mankind to stop using its imagination. In fact, most would readily admit that some of the greatest breakthroughs in science were due to non-linear thinking. It’s when you begin to accept unproven fantasy (which has its use, to be sure) as proven fact, and proven fact to be unproven fantasy that you run into trouble. When you reject the fact of penicillin or heart surgery and instead rely on sitting uder crystals and thinking jolly thoughts, well… Hey, it’s your health, just keep that crystal shit away from me.
I’ll be the first to defend fantasy thinking. Hell, on Halloween I do believe that witches curse us, ghosts haunt us, and pumpkins come alive. I believe it because I want to believe it. It’s fun. But I also realize that I’m believing in folk fantasy, not fact. Should I feel severe abdominal pain while trick or treating, I won’t seek out the jack o’ lantern that gave me the evil eye. I’ll seek out the fine folks at 911.
I also resent the implication that science is boring, limited in thinking, and lacking in anything wonderous. That’s simply a smear by the people that don’t get, or want, science. Read some Sagan sometime and then tell me how devoid of childlike wonder that guy was.
No, it takes only blindness. Courage only enters into the equation when you know what you’re walking into.
Insofar as faith keeps people from pursuing knowledge, it is horribly crippling.
This is a meaningless platitude.
Surely, you’re just kidding. Right? You don’t actually believe this, do you? If so, I’m beginning to understand why you’re so quick to discard the scientific method in favor of blind faith - you don’t seem to have any grasp of science at all.
Natural selection. As a species, physically, we’re pretty unimpressive, and were even more so in our earlier incarnations. On the plains of Africa, Lucy and her friends were prey animals. How did we overcome those limitations? First and foremost, by getting smarter, and outwitting the leopards that wanted to eat us. But second, by watching out for each other. Those proto-humans who, through subtle genetic mutations, developed an innate notion of concern for their fellow Australopithecines, had a survival advantage.
Religions, on the other hand, were invented by man. The inventors endowed those religions with their own notions of what was right and wrong. To believe otherwise, to believe that religions were handed down to man by some divine entity, puts you in the awkward position of having to explain how we ended up with dozens of different religions.
Show me a centaur. Just one will do.
No, it’s HORSESHIT, no matter how you spell it. This is right up there with the jerk-offs who like to use the spelling “magick” and pronounce it with a long a.
Well, since we have seen horses, documented horses, and have some reasonable idea that horses may exist within the region, guessing “it’s a horse” is a reasonable conclusion. Since we know that centaurs are mythological (and we can more or less trace the origins of the myth), no skeleton or photograph of a centaur has ever been produced, and centaurs are, as far as we know, a biological impossibity, then guessing “it’s a centaur” is absolutely unreasonable. It doesn’t show a superior imagination, it’s believing in the woo woo. Nothing wrong with imagining it’s a centaur, of course, but believing it? Even considering it the remotest possibility?
I do my imitation of a train whistle.
And you, sir, have been royally whooshed. 
Quite possibly, I have. That’s one of the things about woo-wooish (woo-wooese?), though. The gobbledygook they spout is indistinguisable from nonsense made up with humorous intent.
Thousands, maybe tens of thousands of “psychics” concentrating on celebrity and none of them forsaw Diana’s car crash or JFK Jr’s plane crash. Yet they all had predictions for them for their last year on this Earth. Surely one of them would have gotten it right.
Haj
No, no. It’s:
“Don’t talk to me about nuclear ninja death sponges to me, Johnny. A nuclear ninja death sponge bit my sister once. Once.”
[sub]A “Johnny Dangerously” reference[/sub]
Dude, just as a helpful word, it’s usually a dumb idea to go off on someone when you don’t understand him.
Yeah, well, why should the entire tri-county area football squad have all the fun?
Don’t worry, I already bitch-slapped myself for that one.
Of course it is. But I’m ranting and raving here and I’ve reached the stage of venom-spewing irrationality where I can begin to lash out at everybody around me on little or no pretext. Don’t be a killjoy.