Well, that happened to me yesterday. Now it's your turn  |
Fictional questions for the skeptical • Page 4
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chopsen 21,958 posts
Seen 13 hours ago
Registered 16 years ago -
MetalDog 24,076 posts
Seen 3 years ago
Registered 20 years ago@muttler
Sounds like one of the substitute history teachers I had. A complete cretin who thought the moon was self-illuminating and went fucking batshit when I thought he was joking and laughed.
@meme
It's the single sentence habit you have. Easy to miss in the wall-o-words =) -
chopsen 21,958 posts
Seen 13 hours ago
Registered 16 years agoMy mother in law is a teacher who works in a primary school. One of the teachers who works with her does not believe in dinosaurs or some such mentalness. Don't believe what you were taught in school. -
Lukey__b 3,716 posts
Seen 2 years ago
Registered 12 years agoChopsen wrote:
Brappo wrote:
People that think that the scientific knowledge we have today can answer all questions are fucking idiots. During the "earth is flat" days they thought they had it all figured out too. Basically, we don't know very much at all and there are a great amny things that we simply don't have the answers to.
The "earth is flat days" was actually just propaganda to support the idea of progressive scientific knowledge from (I think) the Victorian age, about how advanced we'd become, and how people in the past were simpletons.
I actually have a problem with the term "paranormal" as it happens. I don't think it's a particularly useful term, as it is used to describe stuff with is outside of current scientific explanation. By that definition, all science is the study of the paranormal! For example, cosmology is a paranormal belief system as nobody can explain the shape of the universe completely given current science theory.
/tangent mode off
Re the OP: I would assume whatever happens has an explanation. Just because I can't explain it doesn't mean it's not a a valid experience. What I would question would be my perception of reality. If other apparently sane people experienced exactly the same thing, I would find it very interesting, and in the examples you gave probably terrifying.
Exactly my thoughts as well.
I don't see why whatever the 'paranormal' occurence is couldn't be integrated into our scientific knowledge. The only truly paranormal situation would be one which we could never apply rules to which held consistently - something that would never ever be able to be explained. Like the the link of the northern lights, that eventually became explainable, it didn't evade our attempts to understand it.
Something truly paranormal would have to not only not follow pre-existing rules/theories we have for the world/universe, it would have to constantly change to stop from becoming explainable or understood. Otherwise, it would just be normal i.e. there is no paranormal if the situation becomes explainable or understood. -
mal 29,326 posts
Seen 4 years ago
Registered 20 years agoI think it's important to distinguish the fear and flight response that we quite rationally get when we detect that something's stalking us and the reasoning we use to decide whether something was supernatural or not.
It's also quite well understood just how shitty our own memory can be sometimes, so any good skeptic can invoke that on themselves and declare shenanigans. Talking about an event seems to be one of the ways the brain remembers things in more detail, so it's quite possible for people to accidentally or deliberately inject memories at that point, as I understand it. -
Jesus Christ are you people serious? I said that we were taught that in centurys past, before we had science that people believed the earth was flat etc, not that we still did for fuck sake. -
Chopsen wrote:
For real? And she's not just one of them extremist creationist nutjobs who believe earth has only been around for a few millennia?
My mother in law is a teacher who works in a primary school. One of the teachers who works with her does not believe in dinosaurs or some such mentalness. Don't believe what you were taught in school. -
MetalDog 24,076 posts
Seen 3 years ago
Registered 20 years agoWhat word would you use to describe phenomena that is currently unexplainable/in doubt that may later become explainable? -
Lukey__b 3,716 posts
Seen 2 years ago
Registered 12 years agoUnknown phenomena. -
MetalDog 24,076 posts
Seen 3 years ago
Registered 20 years agoThat's not very catchy =) -
bzzct 2,518 posts
Seen 1 day ago
Registered 18 years agoWe don't need a single word/term for each imaginable combination of things. It's a shame when our brains' natural pattern-hunting tendencies push us to categorise and compartmentalise inappropriately. -
MetalDog 24,076 posts
Seen 3 years ago
Registered 20 years agomuttler wrote:
Jesus Christ are you people serious? I said that we were taught that in centurys past, before we had science that people believed the earth was flat etc, not that we still did for fuck sake.
Yes, we understand that's what you were taught - but it's wrong. There was never, ever, widespread belief in a flat earth. -
disusedgenius 10,677 posts
Seen 18 hours ago
Registered 14 years agoIsn't phenomena the actual word for it? maybe with the words 'naturally-occurring' prefixing it. -
Fake_Blood 11,093 posts
Seen 1 day ago
Registered 12 years agoThe Funk Phenomena.
d-_-b -
Lukey__b 3,716 posts
Seen 2 years ago
Registered 12 years agoLet's not head to the land of Jew Lizard conspiracy theories.
It's a scary place and may attract some of the more out there EG members who are currently hibernating. -
StarMagic wrote:
...and there were trips to auswitz, the concentration camp in Germany
Clearly they were highly educational if you didn't even know what country you were in. -
Fake_Blood 11,093 posts
Seen 1 day ago
Registered 12 years agoYeah I heard the entry fees are crazy, but you can always get a season pass and come back later. -
MetalDog wrote:
Ok, just done some googling and I can see that in the middle ages etc most people knew about a round earth. However, according to Aristotle pre-Socratic philosophers, including Leucippus (c. 440 BC) and Democritus (c. 460–370 BC) believed in a flat earth. Also, the chinese held onto the idea of a flat earth until the 17th century (AD).
muttler wrote:
Jesus Christ are you people serious? I said that we were taught that in centurys past, before we had science that people believed the earth was flat etc, not that we still did for fuck sake.
Yes, we understand that's what you were taught - but it's wrong. There was never, ever, widespread belief in a flat earth.
So there was at one point widespread belief in a flat earth. -
President_Weasel 12,355 posts
Seen 3 weeks ago
Registered 17 years agoPsychotext wrote:
I don't think you could convince me. At anything beyond say... a three, I'd assume I'd gone batshit mental and check myself into the nearest looney bin.
At no point would I be likely to believe what had actually happened.
Pretty much this. I'd be far more willing to believe my mind was broken in a fundamental way than that reality itself was. -
disusedgenius 10,677 posts
Seen 18 hours ago
Registered 14 years agomuttler wrote:
Considering that they were the first to prove that it wasn't flat, I somewhat doubt that...
Also, the chinese held onto the idea of a flat earth until the 17th century (AD).
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disusedgenius wrote:
muttler wrote:
Considering that they were the first to prove that it wasn't flat, I somewhat doubt that...
Also, the chinese held onto the idea of a flat earth until the 17th century (AD).
Erm, I think he would know actually. He googled for nearly 15 minutes! -
disusedgenius 10,677 posts
Seen 18 hours ago
Registered 14 years agoI was just trying to be sceptical... 
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MetalDog 24,076 posts
Seen 3 years ago
Registered 20 years agoPresident Weasel wrote:
Psychotext wrote:
I don't think you could convince me. At anything beyond say... a three, I'd assume I'd gone batshit mental and check myself into the nearest looney bin.
At no point would I be likely to believe what had actually happened.
Pretty much this. I'd be far more willing to believe my mind was broken in a fundamental way than that reality itself was.
Given this - how do you think you'd react to ongoing activity in an environment that made just running away tricky? Self-medication into a more comfortable state of non-awareness, or something else?
@muttler - be interested to see your sources on that one -
Wiki. -
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Fake_Blood 11,093 posts
Seen 1 day ago
Registered 12 years agoThe chinese proved the earth is round?
Shit, anyone can see the earth is round. -
I know you're being exploratory rather than dictatorial, MD, but you've quite a few times suggested this idea that many/some people don't believe in ghosts et al because they're scared of them, and so try to explain them away. Just curious as to where you've got this notion from, as it's not something I've come across, and you keep referring to it in a way that implies it's a standard response?
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