by The wanderer 149 Replies latest jw friends
| explain the thousands of paranormal phenomena that are well documented in nearly every country in the world? |
...documented by people who should know to be more skeptical. Show me the incontrovertible evidence for one of these phenomena. As soon as a skeptic studies these phenomena, they prove to be utterly mundane, misperceptions, or a plain hoax.
Alright! TAPS! Good job wanderer.
You just gave a link to one of my favorite sites!
That being said...
I don't know that the afterlife has to be attributable to God. I'm not saying no, and I ain't saying yeah.
But stuff like the afterlife does raise some good questions.
Unfortunately to many the agnostic/atheist, until they experience something they flat out cannot explain and they cannot deny, you aren't going to convert many of them into believing there is an afterlife or something akn to that.
And rightly so!
Currently I'm reading a book called Ghosthunters. No, it's not about TAPS. Actually it's about some of the first real scientific ghosthunters on the scene in Victorian England. And they really set out to do the exact same thing that TAPS does. Either debunk it or figure it out. And the reasoning makes sense. We can't believe everything that passes our way. We need to examine it, figure it out and if it can be debunked, then we have an answer. If it cannot be debunked, then the time comes to say "I don't know".
As AA (dave) said, there may come a time that we can explain occurrences such as that TAPS investigates with out ever having to use the G word.
My absolute biggest issue arises with people who say that they know for an absolute certainty there is no God(dess). Why? No one can prove or disprove it. It is not one of those phenomena we can scientifically reproduce or test. I mean how do you go about investigating God scientifically?
(Can't wait for ghosthunters to start!!!!)
| Simply, because if paranormal activity can be proven, who is to say that a high- er being does not exist. |
Paranormal activity has never been proven. If you have the proof, go collect your million dollars.
| According to my way of thinking, to deny the possibility that God exists is a closed-minded position. |
I might have an invisible ethereal Pixie sitting on my left shoulder, who tells me what to do and what to say. This cannot be disproved, in the same way that God cannot be disproved. But if you met me, you wouldn't address my shoulder-Pixie, just in case he is there, would you? There are an infinite number of things that might exist. But until some evidence turns up there is no use in considering them.
Now, that you are no longer one of Jehovah's Witnesses without a belief
in God, and associated with an organization that has a structured belief
system, does that justify a disbelief in God or the supernatural?
Organizations do not justify a belief in anything "above" me. What I know justifies it.
If you have no belief in God, then explain, why
things that cannot be seen or explained with the naked eye exists
in this world?
Why is it not ok to not have an explanation to everything? The end-all doesn't have to be a god, you know.
According to my way of thinking, to deny the possibility that
God exists is a closed-minded position.
Tsk Tsk.
Praise be to Ra.
http://www.skepticalinvestigations.org/currentresearch/Koestler_parapsych.htm
http://www.skepticalinvestigations.org/aboutsi/index.htm
Just a couple of better quality sites worth taking a look at.
DB74
Gosh! it feels as though I never left the Kingdom Hall.
I recall when I used to have discussions about UFO's around Jehovah's Witnesses, the responses would be similar.
Respectfully,
The Wanderer
The wanderer
Have you a rebuttal?
Wanderer wrote:
Please add your commentary to this open-minded discussion.
Got a slew of responses, from many perspectives, then wrote:
Gosh! it feels as though I never left the Kingdom Hall.
Can you explain this statement? I didn't get that at all.
Thanks!
Dave
~flicks unpopped corn grains at passersby~
~wonders if anyone has looked into extent of Randi's requirements for claiming $1m~
~munches on edge of popcorn carton~
JREF will NOT accept claims of the existence of deities or demons/angels, the validity of exorcism, religious claims, cloudbusting, causing the Sun to rise or the stars to move, etc.
Little Toe:
This Randi feller is pretty tough to please, as are many skeptics around.
This is one of those situations where God or a ghost or whoever could fly a plate under Randi's nose and he still wouldn't believe it was anything supernatural.
So why aren't people running to get their million bucks (how much would that be in pounds anyway?)
Randi, as many other skeptics, would never be convinced because he refuses to be convinced because he doesn't want to be convinced that there are things he can't explain.
ahem I highly recommend the book I'm reading Ghosthunters *can't think of the authors name off hand
