I spent this weekend at Philcon – a science fiction convention here in NJ. This is one of my favorite conventions, mainly because the people who staff and attend this convention, well, they’re just a lot of fun.
This convention sports all kinds of panels, from singing silly songs to hard science. I usually attend the latter.
At one such panel, entitled something like ‘the future of science’, attendees were given the opportunity to ask scientists some really good questions. Well, most of them were really good.
At one point, someone from the audience asked about — get this — the real and quantifiable non-corporal energy-based life forms known as poltergeists. That’s how the question was phrased. Apparently, since people see these poltergeists, they must be real.
The good news and the bad news is that the other people in the audience openly laughed at this guy. Yes, his question was laughably silly and WAY out-of-place, but I still felt bad for the guy being laughed at.
For about 10 seconds. Then I got over it.
In the end, if you are going to ask real scientists about nonsense like ghosts, gods, and goblins, then you get what you deserve — even if it’s humiliating. You deserve to be laughed at.
Hopefully, Mr. Poltergeist will do a little more research and learn a bit before asking another silly question.
I don’t know. We tend to think of science as facts but really it’s the best guess with the evidence we have now. Within the last few years we’ve discovered dark matter and dark energy,and really don’t have much about how they work. I don’t believe in the supernatural, but remember Clark’s law. It wasn’t that long ago that the atom as small a particle that existed.
We have not discovered dark matter or energy. The terms are simply ill defined pieces of possible future models to explain and predict. At this point in time the value of the “model” is questionable to say the least because the model is incomplete in one essential respect – no predictions.
Even more so, that means more than half of the universe we know NOTHING about. How can we have the audacity to say we KNOW any thing? I realize that it’s just semantics but the main thing that irritates me about jesus freaks is they won’t say they believe anything, they know. Aren’t we doing the same thing when we say science knows something. It’s what the evidence says BUT new evidence can disprove all we think we know now
Science isn’t a set of conclusions written in a textbook, it’s a process for obtaining knowledge about the physical world. One core function in science is the scrutiny of ideas and theories. To the extent that decades of intensive investigation of allegedly magical/paranormal events has never produced anything besides natural explanations or recorded static, a core function of science is to discard magical/paranormal theories in favor of the ones supported by data.
To the extent that observation also indicates that some people will still believe in superstitious beliefs despite all evidence, their dismissal can likewise be reflexive.
Chris B says “Science isn’t a set of conclusions written in a textbook, it’s a process for obtaining knowledge about the physical world.”
I agree totally. What I’m trying to get across is that often I get the impression from atheists that they have facts about things that are only suggested by the evidence. I’m not a scientist, so I don’t claim to be well read about such but I believe through the years we have folks saying “this is the way things work” then a few years later new data arrives to be followed by a big oops, new facts. I think we should say these things are what we think, not what we know.
So things that we don’t know enough about to generate a model, we are simply agnostic about. Nothing wrong with admitting that we don’t know it all. We haven’t been doing science for long on this planet.
In reading this thread it just strikes me that most people in our country go about their lives believing that life is like a fairytale. If you believe in gods, it certainly opens oneself up to believing in anything. So people we mingle with would not be surprised if something magical suddenly happened. It just seems like such a dichotomy between those willing to accept magic and those not. It is really very interesting.
I tell my son, there are no silly questions.
Remember, people are told all kinds of crap (pretty much) daily. Some facts are easier to find than others, so instead of ridiculing the person causing humiliation to close their mind… I would look to the presenters to give information.
But there are many silly questions. There are questions that make no sense at all yet ensnare weak minds in obsessive quests to know the answers.
I have no problem with questions asked purely out if ignorance, but the phrasing of the question seemed more like she was trying to assure the scientists that poltergeists exist, then to satisfy any personal quest for knowledge.
The use of the phrase “the real and quantifiable non-corporal energy-based life forms known as poltergeists” was just meant to irritate the people around her. It would be like going to a holocaust memorial, and instead of asking reasonable questions asking a question starting off by referring to it as the “absolutely deniable fairy story of the holocaust.”
Hadron collider is working can’t wait to hear what they find.
Be careful folks if you travel to denver or philadephia.Saw reports in denver black gang on rampage assaulting white,hispanics and philly black gang raped a chinese woman in a chinese cafe.Don’t bother checking mainsteam media as usual they are in full pc blackout mode.
& there’s clan warfare in the Philippines, they’ve found 22 bodies in shallow graves thus far.
Sadly, horribly, bad behavior is all too human, not contingent on skin color.
Clan warfare-same race.I pointed out race so hispanics,whites,asians going to those cities could be alert if it was a white gang i would have said white.The media is failing in its duty to alert the public to safety threats.Racial profiling works it has saved many lives in places like israel.Pointing out race of suspects doesn’t demonize the whole race they belong to.Madoff doesn’t mean all jews are crooks or hitler that all white christians are sociopaths.
If you go to that shit hole called Philadelphia you have it coming.
Humans are always fascinated by some version of “the other tribe is out to get you” narrative. In the modern world, where “tribe” membership is ambiguous, people seek out features that make them part of an in-group and others part of an out-group. For some, religion is this feature. For others, it is race.
The rewards for being in an in-group include a social life (not to be discounted) and the comfort that comes from that group’s superiority claim: i.e. “the chosen people,” “the superior race,” or “the greatest nation.”
The unfortunate effects of this phenomenon are religious, ethnic, nationalist, and racist violence, discrimination, fear, terrorism, and war. It is all motivated by people who think “the other tribe is out to get me.” Ironically, if there is someone out to get you, it is because they think you are out to get them.
I have a pet theory that some individuals have a higher need for tribal belonging than others. They populate cults, crackpot conspiracy websites, terrorist groups, and racist groups. Something to think about, reason.