Final Thought About Atheism (page 5)

Abaddon

And now the fantasists have a nice little circle jerk...

Guys, it was made to sound like major Universities are ploughing major money into the paranormal. They are not. It is made to sound like there is a vast set of evidence supporting belief in the paranormal. There is not, at least not of the level of reliability that would secure a speeding ticket.

Now you mock those who've asked you to actually prove what you're talking about is more than credulous speculation.

Come on then. Where are the people levitating stuff with the power of their mind, sending messages from one mind to another mind, accurately foretelling the future or seeing things in their mind from beyond visual range?

ALL of these things are easy to prove if they exist. Your determined avoidance of this fact and the fact no one HAS proved such things speaks volumes about the etiology of belief.

funkyderek

As several people have demonstrated, there really is no proof of the existence of a spirit world (the existence of "paranormal organizations" notwithstanding), but even if there were, this would in itself tell us nothing about the existence of a god. There would be no reason to believe that spirit life didn't evolve in a similar way to corporeal life, without any need for a creator.

Crumpet

There would be no reason to believe that spirit life didn't evolve in a similar way to corporeal life, without any need for a creator.

Interesting thought. I like it.

nvrgnbk

There would be no reason to believe that spirit life didn't evolve in a similar way to corporeal life, without any need for a creator.
Interesting thought. I like it.

Ditto on that Crumpet. You've got quite the mind there FunkyD!

Nvr

Abaddon

Crumpet

Well, if one could prove there were non-corporeal entities, and they were subject to selection and could transfer uniquenes on to offspring, yes, they would evolve.

Also interesting is applying evolutionary biology to claimed paranormal abilities;

Attributes that have a positive value for survival increase their penetration into a population. In other words mind-reading, elephant levitators who can avoid danger by knowing about it beforehand will have lots of babies, and many of these babies will carry the same trait, until as many people can read mind, levitate elephants and see the future as can digest lactose.I

This is very much not the case. Therefore one can say that one of the following must be true;

Paranormal abilities do not exist; there is no evidence against this possibility
Paranormal abilities do exist, but are so tiny and uncontrollable they are of no survival benefit what-so-ever and only turn up on the off chance, and even then don't breed true. This is possible but doesn't explain how paranormal stuff works; we know how electricity works (simplification; pumping electrons), but we cannot point to paranormalons and show how they make tables float.
Paranormal abilities do exist and do provide a survival benefit but are a new thing (just as lactose tolerance was once a new thing) and haven't had time to develop properly in the population yet; same problem regarding explaining how it works as above.
Paranormal abilities are the result of humans being parasitised by non-corporeal entities (who hide from scientists and cameras) well; it is possible, but that's different from likely.
Paranormal abilities are the result of a divine gift and are not something related to one's genetics; I'd have to ask the fairies if this is true

The wanderer

Regarding the evidence surrounding the paranormal is a challenge
simply because an individual first has to accept creditable schools,
scholars, and institutions in order to go forward. Without that
acceptance it is impossible to prove anything.

On a personal level, I really do not like being called more or less
a liar when I do produce creditable sources. Again, I will produce
creditable sources and the very first website with paranormal
evidence.

Whether or not that evidence will be taken into consideration
is another story all together. In other words, I seriously doubt it.

However, here is the evidence, as promised and please note the
creditable sources.

American Institute of of Parapsychology

When you click on the above link take a close look at the archive section.

Pennsylvania State University Paranormal Society.

Here is the phone number for the above link 1-814-689-2133 .

University of Oxford UK

Contact information Oxford Discovery Office
University of Oxford
Department for Continuing Education
Ewert House
Summertown
OXFORD OX2 7DD
UK
t: +44 1865 28 08 83
f: +44 1865 28 08 86
email: [email protected]

The Parapsychological Association

Information about the Parapsychological Association

I know there will be ridicule, however, this is a good
start and it disproves "kid-A's" prior claims.

Respectfully,

The Wanderer

Abaddon

The wanderer

All you have done is this;

http://www.theflatearthsociety.org/

http://www.alaska.net/~clund/e_djublonskopf/Flatearthsociety.htm

See, I can give URL's; no smoke without a fire, eh?

http://www.fixedearth.com/

And another one!

http://www.strangemag.com/nessie.home.html

This is easy isn't it?

http://www.bfro.net/

Got the point yet?

Cutting and pasting links means nothing. One can find any variety of nutter cloaking their claims in pseudoscience and speculation. Doesn't mean they are right - but remember, a boy on a beach with a stick can PROVE the earth is curved. No one has proved the paranormal yet. Not one bit.

Good evidence would be a scientific paper, published in a reputable peer-reviewed science journal having an abstract that read something like;

"In a study of 10,000 randomly-selected people on the electoral register, 0.04% were found to be able to generate a force averaging 0.004N on electronic scale situated in a vacuum chamber in another visable to them via a CCTV link in the next room."

Or;

"In a study of 573 University students it was found five students were capable of sending a 20-digit number to one of the group of five when they were located in two separate location with no means of perceiving the other by any known sense, the number being a random sequence selected via means of double-blind protocols, all experiments being observed by panel of five independent scientists selected from the National Science bodies of G7 nations."

Personally I would find proof of coherent thought transference or telekinesis fantastically exciting. But no one has done it yet, and I won't let my liking of such a thing alter my standards of proof, or treat you like a child and pretend you have a good point when you don't. Or do you like being condescended too?

sass_my_frass

Well I'm glad we settled that one.

The wanderer

Dear Abbadon:

When I asked you "What EXACTLY were you looking for?"
You did not mention the quote stated below.

Do you recall when I asked what you wanted or
what you were looking for?

Videos?, Audios?, Thermal images?

As I recall you said any kind of evidence here is your quote:
"Just to make myself clear, I am asking you for PROOF."

Now all of a sudden you want something SPECIFIC and EXACT.

"Good evidence would be a scientific paper, published in a reputable peer-reviewed science journal having an abstract that read something like;

"In a study of 10,000 randomly-selected people on the electoral register, 0.04% were found to be able to generate a force averaging 0.004N on electronic scale situated in a vacuum chamber in another visable to them via a CCTV link in the next room." -Abbadon

If you were specific when I asked you DIRECTLY
we would not be in this entanglement in the first
place.

I have provided names of universities, names of
professors, email addresses, telephone numbers
names of organizations, websites with photographs
and in your eyes it is still not good enough.

I believe I made a fair and reasonable effort to
provide some evidence and once again you turn
to sidestepping the issue.

The originial issue was: "Now, if top colleges
and university’s have evidence that concludes
such exists,(paranormal) that maybe enough to
support the belief that God does exist."

You have enough information in my opinion,
to draw a reasonable conclusion, and as I said
before this is a lost cause.

Respectfully,

The Wanderer

Final Thought About Atheism

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