It’s a mountain, and it’s on the Moon. It sticks up so high that even as the Moon spins, it’s in perpetual daylight. Radiation from the Sun pours down on there day and night, 24 hours a day—well, the Moon’s day is actually about 4 weeks long, so the sunlight pours down there 708 hours a day.
I know a place where the Sun never shines. It’s at the bottom of the ocean. A crack in the crust there exudes nasty chemicals and heats the water to the boiling point. This would kill a human instantly, but there are creatures there, bacteria, that thrive. They eat the sulfur from the vent, and excrete sulfuric acid.
I know a place where the temperature is 15 million degrees, and the pressure would crush you to a microscopic dot. That place is the core of the Sun.
I know a place where the magnetic fields would rip you apart, atom by atom: the surface of a neutron star, a magnetar.
I know a place where life began billions of years ago. That place is here, the Earth.
I know these places because I’m a scientist.
Science is a way of finding things out. It’s a way of testing what’s real. It’s what Richard Feynman called “A way of not fooling ourselves.”
No astrologer ever predicted the existence of Uranus, Neptune, or Pluto. No modern astrologer had a clue about Sedna, a ball of ice half the size of Pluto that orbits even farther out. No astrologer predicted the more than 150 planets now known to orbit other suns.
But scientists did.
No psychic, despite their claims, has ever helped the police solve a crime. But forensic scientists have, all the time.
It wasn’t someone who practices homeopathy who found a cure for smallpox, or polio. Scientists did, medical scientists.
No creationist ever cracked the genetic code. Chemists did. Molecular biologists did.
They used physics. They used math. They used chemistry, biology, astronomy, engineering.
They used science.
These are all the things you discovered doing your projects. All the things that brought you here today.
Computers? Cell phones? Rockets to Saturn, probes to the ocean floor, PSP, gamecubes, gameboys, X-boxes? All by scientists.
Those places I talked about before—you can get to know them too. You can experience the wonder of seeing them for the first time, the thrill of discovery, the incredible, visceral feeling of doing something no one has ever done before, seen things no one has seen before, know something no one else has ever known.
No crystal balls, no tarot cards, no horoscopes. Just you, your brain, and your ability to think.
Welcome to science. You’re gonna like it here.
A bad ass who will beat you like he's using the fists of god.
And science said that no human could survive and impact to the body of more then 50g based on the evidence available. then the started to put sensors in Indy cars in America,the first ever crash they recorded showed 58 g and the drive walked away. Whoops science got that wrong. Since that they have recored up to 110 g without a fatality. So science is what a human thinks based on the level of knowledge at the present time,being human of course they can be wrong. Just thought i would make that point. Easy to stress the positive and ignore the negative aspects of when science has had to " reevaluate" its thinkings.
Easy to stress the positive and ignore the negative aspects of when science has had to " reevaluate" its thinkings.
That is precisely the strength of science. It only ever comes up with provisional conclusions and where a conclusion can be shown to be wrong, science will amend its stance and replace it with something better.
With this never-ending self-scrutiny and amendment, scientific theories get harder and harder to prove wrong as time goes on. When a theory reaches the point where it cannot be proved wrong it may then be regarded as true (a scientific law).
I'm afraid that your appeal to 'science has been wrong before' holds no water. The point is, science welcomes attempts to prove it wrong because that's how advances are made.
When science is wrong it will be accepted and better theories sought. When a psychic (of any flavour) is wrong they think up excuses!!
But when science is in place it is taken by many to be gospel. I have seen many posts on here stating that an event or occurrence is " not scientifically proven" Hence a great reliance is based on something that may well be incorrect. What in fact is true is that something is not proven by the scientific thinking as it stand NOW and that also even that thinking could be flawed or simply that the scientist are not clever enough people to have come up with better experiments and thinking. Science is flawed,you say that it is always reevaluating itself,so if one aspect is proven to be wrong and readjusted then all the thinking,publications that were taking as true and may have been used to deride a paranormal occurrence are false,flawed a complete waste of time. That is my point,no one can say for sure whet is fact,because the next day another scientist will say different. So science is no more then a comfort blanket for people who do not wish to think outside the envelope,keeps their opinions nice and safe and warm and the eyes covered.
So science is no more then a comfort blanket for people who do not wish to think outside the envelope,keeps their opinions nice and safe and warm and the eyes covered.
"Eyes covered" ? Surely it's eyes open.
See something that happens. Observe it many times. Try to formulate a theory that explains it. Then move on, BUT if further observations seem to invalidate the theory it is time to go back and think again.
Observation and thought. Hardly "eyes covered" in my opinion.
So science is no more then a comfort blanket for people who do not wish to think outside the envelope,keeps their opinions nice and safe and warm and the eyes covered.
Hardly "eyes covered" in my opinion.
Kev.
No i was thinking more of those people who as i said think if science don't prove it then it is wrong,they seem to think that science is infallible which has been proven time and time again it is. If as you say a theory is invalidated and you have to rethink,then that original theory is wrong,if not why reevaluate it. Hence any observations or results based on that theory is wrong. Hence, again, science is not an infallible God that some seem to take it as. I an not in the main referring to the scientists themselves but to the lay man who often uses science as a blankets reason to dispel anything that they do not believe in. Many scientist are in fact highly original thinkers,if they were not they would remain stagnant.
Science is flawed,you say that it is always reevaluating itself,so if one aspect is proven to be wrong and readjusted then all the thinking,publications that were taking as true and may have been used to deride a paranormal occurrence are false,flawed a complete waste of time.
No that's not the case. With science, it's often just the degree of accuracy that changes. Science may not be 100% accurate but even where it's not, it's probably very close.
It's not a case of science changing that will validate the paranormal. It would take a paranormal event that could be demonstrated to be true which would change science (!)
Science is about understanding and explaining observed phenomena. The reason that the paranormal hasn't been accepted by science is because there are no paranormal phenomena that can be observed!!
Science is eclectic. If there's a phenomenon that's there science will explain it, not reject it. That's how advances in understanding are made.
I see where you are coming from but i am thinking of the bigger picture. Much of science is fine tuning,my point is that science and scientists have been proven to be spectacularly wrong in the past. How vehemently did astronomers argue that Pluto wasn't there,or that there was no other particles below the atomic level or even that the atomic level itself is real. Many people believed that the scientists had the answers on these and many other facts. They did not require fine tuning they were completely and utterly wrong. I feel sure that just as many people would have defended them then in periodicals too as people are defending todays science here. So science can be wrong and i hope no one is arrogant to assume that the present day ones cannot be just as wrong. Science is there ,make of it as you will but to those that believe blindly that is the ultimate answer are no better then those people who think that " spirit" control every aspect of their lives. I decry both.
You're just making the same argument: science has been wrong before therefore it might be wrong about paranormal phenomena now.
Science does not say things are impossible (misguided scientists may) as it's a method of inquiry, not a belief system. If something is real, science will attempt to understand it.
It tends to be new information, observations and insights that advance science (by overthrowing older theories). There's nothing new about paranormal claims. They have been around for so long now that if any of them were true, it would have been recognised by now.
Paranormal claims are not rejected by science because there's something wrong with science; it's because there's something wrong with the claims: they don't stand up to scrutiny.
Yes i am making the same point and in my first post i was referring to an recent example of how science was wrong. Got it in one. That was my point,we are basing all rejections of any paranormal events on a science which is the best we have at the moment. A science which has been proven time and time again by past experience to be fallible. That may change,science may discover a completely new type on energy that proves there is an afterlife,parrell universe etc. But if you consider some of the names that believers/mediums have been called on this board. Delusional. Insane. Woo,Woos etc. The same type of comments that could have been applied and prob ally were to some of the forward thinking scientists by there peers of the day when it come to suggesting that solid objects were made up of smaller bits flying around. Hence my comments science can be proven to be wrong and advance. Failure to admit that strikes me as a very blinkered approach. Most of the true scientists would i feel be more then aware of how precarious some of the thinking and research within there discipline can be.
All paranormal claims have been tested and found to be false. It is only a new claim that will stand any chance of advancing science.
Like I said, paranormal claims are not accepted by science because they don't stand up to scrutiny.
Science can only move forward by explaining things we already know but in more detail, and by discovering things that cannot be explained by current knowledge (which is where new theories and understanding come from).
There are no paranormal claims that can't currently be explained so there is zero chance of science needing to change to explain them (!)
NO,NO,NO!!!!!!! Why must we perpetuate the myth that science and believers in the paranormal are enemies. We must all evaluate what we experience and make decisions on the facts. Too often believers have said" its true I saw it or I heard it" but so called sceptics have said" well I didnt so its not true. " We must all work together to resolve the great question "is there life after death" I have had personal experiences that I have rationally evaluated and can find no other explanation but a paranormal one,on several occasions they have been experienced by others at the same time and those people came to the same decision. However we are often fooled by tv hype and tv's desire for conflict. It is time that we used the skills that evolution have provided us and try and work together . For all so called sceptics who argue science is on their side and that there is no such things as the paranormal, you are in danger of becoming luddites by not being prepared to consider alternatives.We should be working together not against one another.
i147.Report this post to Admin please.com/albums/r281/PILLSBURY069/avatar_3247DOUGHBOY.gif[/IMG]
NO,NO,NO!!!!!!! Why must we perpetuate the myth that science and believers in the paranormal are enemies. We must all evaluate what we experience and make decisions on the facts. Too often believers have said" its true I saw it or I heard it" but so called sceptics have said" well I didnt so its not true. " We must all work together to resolve the great question "is there life after death" I have had personal experiences that I have rationally evaluated and can find no other explanation but a paranormal one,on several occasions they have been experienced by others at the same time and those people came to the same decision. However we are often fooled by tv hype and tv's desire for conflict. It is time that we used the skills that evolution have provided us and try and work together . For all so called sceptics who argue science is on their side and that there is no such things as the paranormal, you are in danger of becoming luddites by not being prepared to consider alternatives.We should be working together not against one another.
All paranormal claims have been tested and found to be false. It is only a new claim that will stand any chance of advancing science.
Like I said, paranormal claims are not accepted by science because they don't stand up to scrutiny.
Science can only move forward by explaining things we already know but in more detail, and by discovering things that cannot be explained by current knowledge (which is where new theories and understanding come from).
There are no paranormal claims that can't currently be explained so there is zero chance of science needing to change to explain them (!)
Sigh OK,you must be right. However you failed to address the points that show science has been wrong in the past so could be wrong now. Or the points that some scientists in the past could have met with the same reaction as some mediums do now. Never mind
For all so called sceptics who argue science is on their side and that there is no such things as the paranormal, you are in danger of becoming luddites by not being prepared to consider alternatives.We should be working together not against one another.
No. We would be Luddites if there were real phenomena going on and we were ignoring them.
That's the crux of this problem. Whenever these paranormal abilities are tested under controlled conditions they disappear.
Science, and skeptics, are completely open to new possibilities. It's up to the believers in these abilities to actually provide some evidence for us to examine.
Until someone does come up with some evidence then all we can conclude is that the phenomena are not real.
I agree, it shouldn't be a them vs us battle; but I see the problem being with the believers like lowrider who believe in things that have no evidence to support them and think science has to change to accommodate these nonexistent phenomena.
I don't believe that science must change simply that people must be open to the possibility that science as it stands is not the ultimate some people suggest. It simply represents the level of knowledge as we stand now. We must be open to the possibility that it is wrong and their could be a fundamental shift in thinking. As there was in the terms i referred to on the atomic and sub atomic levels. That was the point is was trying to make,it seems i failed.
Post by Mr. Jon Donnis on Jul 9, 2006 21:19:11 GMT
And if there are things to be discovered on those levels LR then it is SCIENCE that will do it.
Psychics such as yourself can so very easily prove their specific claims yet ALL of them fail.
Ask yourself why? Forget the excuses and ask yourself why not a single psychic/medium in history has ever been able to prove the remotest of paranormal claim?
Why cant a spirit look over my shoulder at a playing card i am holding, show that card to you inyour mind and you tell it me?
WHY WHY WHY?
A bad ass who will beat you like he's using the fists of god.
And if there are things to be discovered on those levels LR then it is SCIENCE that will do it.
Psychics such as yourself can so very easily prove their specific claims yet ALL of them fail.
Ask yourself why? Forget the excuses and ask yourself why not a single psychic/medium in history has ever been able to prove the remotest of paranormal claim?
Why cant a spirit look over my shoulder at a playing card i am holding, show that card to you inyour mind and you tell it me?
WHY WHY WHY?
Again were in my previous post did i mention any type of paranormal event,i was simply looking at science as a discipline and pointing out that so much credence,not just for paranormal events, is placed on it. Think of the mobile phone debate,yes they cause brain tumors,no they don't or the daily change in what is good or bad for you to eat. All advice that was given to the public as a result of science. Again failures. Yet so many sceptics see science as the ONLY rational way to look at life,despite ALL of its failures.
Post by Mr. Jon Donnis on Jul 10, 2006 8:29:55 GMT
So you are saying we should look at the paranormal as a way to look at life then?
At least with the mobile phone debate there is actually a reason behind the studied. Things that can be measured and tested.
Ok so they cant make their mind up, but at least they are investigating it.
Psychics would have us believe all sorts of nonsense without even proving it or giving a reason why its real.
Again a simple test could prove any of the worlds psychics as real, and since NO PSYCHICS can do this, i would suggest that psychic ability is not real.
You claim to be a medium, can you do that very simple test and prove you are genuine? Hell dont do it for me or the sceptics, do it for yourself.
Get a family member who believes in you to do it with you.
Let me know how you do.
And if you fail, I will expect the usual excuses
A bad ass who will beat you like he's using the fists of god.