by primaelgen » August 23rd, 2005, 1:15 pm
[quote="MikeWulf"]Absurd! Have you got any magical abilities that you can actually prove to someone? Do you believe someone out there has this ability? Well think again. There is a man out there that has screened thousands apon thousands of people who have claimed some extraordinary ability. From magicians (or wiccas or witches or other bullshit...More on that later) to diviners and psychics and the likes. And guess what!? Not a single one has given a shred of proof that they can do such things! Why would so many people try though? Because this man is offering a million dollars to anyone who can do it! Explain, knowing full well that someone does not pass up easy money no matter what their beliefs, how not a single person has claimed this money even though you say magic is real?[/quote]
I love it when people cite the Randi Foundation. It's like hearing a crowd of football fans, "Go Randi! Go Randi!" To a person, I have yet to find a Randi fanatic that does not say that because no one has won the money, magic is therefore not real. It's as if they are unquestioningly parroting James Randi, without a single, original thought in in their head. Sounds like a logical fallacy to me. Surprising, for fanatical rationalists, no?
:o
[quote="MikeWulf"]On a different note...When you fall asleep your mind goes into very distinct states. These states are given the levels alpha, beta, etc. They know of these states because sleep is understood, without a doubt. They have dont brain scans and tests for ever and ever. Now, is this magic? Is sleep magic? Answer me that and I will ruin your shit till the cows come home...Go ahead. I dare you. [/quote]
Sleep is far from "understood". In fact, that goes against the very core of the Randi Skeptics beliefs. Science is about what is not understood, an ongoing quest of questioning. To say that it is understood and ... that is all there is to it ... is to contradict the very ethos of the Randi Skeptic Fanatic; it's so ... so ... Absurd!
For example, the classification of the beta, alpha, theta, and delta states are just that: classifications. They are almost-arbitrary categories derived from statistical analysis of brainwave studies. This does not make them beta, alpha, theta, and delta waves, just as descriptions of gravity are not the same as gravity. Besides, the brain actually produces a combination of these "states", in varying degrees, in different parts of the brain. Someone with a high beta in the temporal lobe and strong, coherent delta wave is probably much more rational than someone with wild beta and some alpha waves running amok, pretending to be logical and rational when he is in fact, anything but.
[quote="MikeWulf"]Damn it! I also have to do a pre-emptive strike. If you give me this 'I just follow my beliefs because I know they are right' bullshit, I will take you as a fool and so will any other logical (read: not stupid) person will as well.
Damn, I shouldn't ramble so.[/quote]
You "have" to? Perhaps someone has been missing out on the magic of sleep and so he rambles on. Maybe some cookie and a glass of milk before bed...
:D
PrimaelGen Project