Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Evolution -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (9797)	11/12/2010 8:40:12 PM
From: J_F_Shepard	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 69300

I would agree with that....to say the supernatural does exist is strictly voodoo belief....

To: Brumar89 who wrote (9797)	11/12/2010 10:58:01 PM
From: Solon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 69300

"To say that the supernatural doesn't exist is a comment on the supernatural which you're now on record as saying science can't make." Well, I never said that at all, but I will. Science says that everything that can be informed through the scientific method exists in nature and not above it. I have always been precise about my opinions although I am often misunderstood. I believe the supernatural is anything that is imagined to exist by some people which seems to rational people to be a belief not based on a respect for reason and outside of the present realm of verifiability. By nature of the infinite reach of imagination it stands to reason that much of what is considered supernatural is and forever will be myth and Fancy. On the other hand, an honest respect for human limitations and an awareness of human fallibility throughout history enjoins us to draw the line separating fact from fancy with an erasable pencil and be ready to recognize the existence of things once considered above nature. Those who have observed that anything that exists is a part of natural law are correct. Our use of the term supernatural is a convenience to separate fact from fancy in accordance with current knowledge. Fact and fancy are elastic rooms with flexible walls. So as I said to Longshort: "The supernatural world (if it has more than fanciful existence) is beyond any verification or scientific exploration or examination." The process of science cannot speak to it unless and until it can be examined in some scientific manner. For instance, if somebody comes out of the woods with a green unicorn on a chain, every scientist in the world will wish to perform experiments and read the research on this NATURAL (but very rare and unique) animal, thing, or whatever. Finally, some scientists have supernatural beliefs. But if they respect the scientific method and if they honor the need to keep fact and fancy--both uncontaminated by the other--then they will not pretend their unscientific beliefs are scientific. Sometimes, fancy can be tested to some degree. Thus, some scientists (and Edison immediately comes to mind in an applied science perspective) have studied for the existence of ghosts. He had no more luck with that than when trying to measure a soul--but this takes us back to what I've been discussing. Until these things that are apparently paranormal stimulate us on rational grounds we must give them a name and a place on irrational grounds. It means keeping a clean desk and an organized mind. And I don't need bloody unicorns, angels, Jinns, and Athena and Apollo and the Titans, and Pan and Medusa, or anybody from Duke University lighting camp fires in my mind or homesteading. People are proud of their individual superstitions but if any one of us had to carry the whole SH-T load of fantasy around for a day, it would bow the knees of Hercules--or even that guy who massacred 1000 men with the jawbone of an ass--whatever his name was--the guy with the wonderful hair. People are entitled to supernatural beliefs. But if they wish to claim those beliefs reflect something real, and natural--and merely unknown to those who practice the scientific method--then they need only demonstrate the empirical evidence for us to replicate under controlled conditions of thought and practice.