[FairfieldLife] Re: Balloon of Ignorance Punctured by Needle of Scientific Curiosity

2013-03-26 Thread PaliGap


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 
fintlewoodlewix@... wrote:
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap 
compost1uk@ wrote:
  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 
fintlewoodlewix@ wrote:
  
   If you want to have a go at convincing us go ahead. 
Start wherever you like on the diagram. 
  
  There are many things I don't believe in. Maybe I don't
  believe in more than you (take Scientism for a start).
 
 Scientism? Ah yes, that weird sickness creationists like to
 accuse the rational of suffering from.

Ah, the rational. 
http://youtu.be/cAgAvnvXF9U

Is this your thought process?

:: Creationists make accusations of scientism.
:: Creationists talk bollocks
:: This is an accusation of scientism
:: So this is bollocks

Hardly an advertisement for the rational higher ground?

Susan Haack: Six Signs Of Scientism:


1. Using the words science, scientific, scientifically, 
scientist, etc., honorifically, as generic terms of 
epistemic praise.

2. Adopting the manners, the trappings, the technical 
terminology, etc., of the sciences, irrespective of their real 
usefulness.

3. A preoccupation with demarcation, i.e., with drawing a 
sharp line between genuine science, the real thing, and 
pseudo-scientific imposters.

4. A corresponding preoccupation with identifying the 
scientific method, presumed to explain how the sciences have 
been so successful.

5. Looking to the sciences for answers to questions beyond 
their scope. 
 
6. Denying or denigrating the legitimacy or the worth of other 
kinds of inquiry besides the scientific, or the value of human 
activities other than inquiry, such as poetry or art.

From:
http://goo.gl/9K7hS  (pdf)

Professor Haack ain't no stinkin' creationist:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Haack




[FairfieldLife] Re: Balloon of Ignorance Punctured by Needle of Scientific Curiosity

2013-03-26 Thread salyavin808


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost1uk@... wrote:

 
 
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 
 fintlewoodlewix@ wrote:
  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap 
 compost1uk@ wrote:
   --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 
 fintlewoodlewix@ wrote:
   
If you want to have a go at convincing us go ahead. 
 Start wherever you like on the diagram. 
   
   There are many things I don't believe in. Maybe I don't
   believe in more than you (take Scientism for a start).
  
  Scientism? Ah yes, that weird sickness creationists like to
  accuse the rational of suffering from.
 
 Ah, the rational. 
 http://youtu.be/cAgAvnvXF9U
 
 Is this your thought process?
 
 :: Creationists make accusations of scientism.
 :: Creationists talk bollocks
 :: This is an accusation of scientism
 :: So this is bollocks
 
 Hardly an advertisement for the rational higher ground?
 
 Susan Haack: Six Signs Of Scientism:
 
 
 1. Using the words science, scientific, scientifically, 
 scientist, etc., honorifically, as generic terms of 
 epistemic praise.
 
 2. Adopting the manners, the trappings, the technical 
 terminology, etc., of the sciences, irrespective of their real 
 usefulness.
 
 3. A preoccupation with demarcation, i.e., with drawing a 
 sharp line between genuine science, the real thing, and 
 pseudo-scientific imposters.
 
 4. A corresponding preoccupation with identifying the 
 scientific method, presumed to explain how the sciences have 
 been so successful.
 
 5. Looking to the sciences for answers to questions beyond 
 their scope. 
  
 6. Denying or denigrating the legitimacy or the worth of other 
 kinds of inquiry besides the scientific, or the value of human 
 activities other than inquiry, such as poetry or art.

Is this what you are accusing me of? Ho ho, does she think
poetry can prove reincarnation?
  




[FairfieldLife] Re: Balloon of Ignorance Punctured by Needle of Scientific Curiosity

2013-03-26 Thread PaliGap


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@... wrote:
 
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost1uk@ wrote:

  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 
  fintlewoodlewix@ wrote:
   --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap 
  compost1uk@ wrote:
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 
  fintlewoodlewix@ wrote:

 If you want to have a go at convincing us go ahead. 
  Start wherever you like on the diagram. 

There are many things I don't believe in. Maybe I don't
believe in more than you (take Scientism for a start).
   
   Scientism? Ah yes, that weird sickness creationists like to
   accuse the rational of suffering from.
  
  Ah, the rational. 
  http://youtu.be/cAgAvnvXF9U
  
  Is this your thought process?
  
  :: Creationists make accusations of scientism.
  :: Creationists talk bollocks
  :: This is an accusation of scientism
  :: So this is bollocks
  
  Hardly an advertisement for the rational higher ground?
  
  Susan Haack: Six Signs Of Scientism:
  
  
  1. Using the words science, scientific, scientifically, 
  scientist, etc., honorifically, as generic terms of 
  epistemic praise.
  
  2. Adopting the manners, the trappings, the technical 
  terminology, etc., of the sciences, irrespective of their real 
  usefulness.
  
  3. A preoccupation with demarcation, i.e., with drawing a 
  sharp line between genuine science, the real thing, and 
  pseudo-scientific imposters.
  
  4. A corresponding preoccupation with identifying the 
  scientific method, presumed to explain how the sciences have 
  been so successful.
  
  5. Looking to the sciences for answers to questions beyond 
  their scope. 
   
  6. Denying or denigrating the legitimacy or the worth of other 
  kinds of inquiry besides the scientific, or the value of human 
  activities other than inquiry, such as poetry or art.
 
 Is this what you are accusing me of? Ho ho, does she think
 poetry can prove reincarnation?

Yes and no and neither do I. And neither did Wordsworth. Can
you imagine that - writing verse about something that *can't be
proved*? What a waste of time! Why bother?

Do you think that only what is provable is a worthy candidate
for what we might suppose to be the case? (I suspect that very little,
if anything, is provable). If you do think that, or something like
it, is that belief in itself provable? Or should that faith of yours
be consigned to the Venn diagram of unproveable bollocks (religious
bollocks presumably)?







[FairfieldLife] Re: Balloon of Ignorance Punctured by Needle of Scientific Curiosity

2013-03-26 Thread salyavin808


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost1uk@... wrote:

 
 
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@ wrote:

  Is this what you are accusing me of? Ho ho, does she think
  poetry can prove reincarnation?
 
 Yes and no and neither do I. And neither did Wordsworth. Can
 you imagine that - writing verse about something that *can't be
 proved*? What a waste of time! Why bother?

Erm, it was you who brought the subject up and even warned
me to avert my eyes.
 
 Do you think that only what is provable is a worthy candidate
 for what we might suppose to be the case? (I suspect that very little,
 if anything, is provable)

Well if you are going to hamstring yourself like that... 

Try assuming that some things do exist and are provable and 
then see what is worth considering. The way I look at unprovable
things like reincarnation is by seeing what we'd have to throw
away by accepting something that contradicts what we are rather
sure about.

For any sort of life after death it seems to me that an awful
lot of useful and well tested explanations have to go in the bin,
including some of my favourites. I'd be a bit annoyed to have to
jettison Darwinism because people decided en mass to teach Dr Eber
instead because it's more romantically satisfying. What do we gain
in return? A bit of comfort?

Of course, the world could be stranger than anyone can imagine
and heaven and hell exist and even reincarnation at the same time,
or maybe Ron Hubbard is right. Seems that a lot these ideas fit a similar meme 
and come from the same emotional place and thus fit 
into the same section of the venn diagram where they will stay. 
At least until everything we base our rather well sussed view of
the world has turned out to be crap or at least shown how it could 
co-exist with this stuff. Which seems the less likely option to me,
but here's hoping! It'd be quite a paradigm shift

. If you do think that, or something like
 it, is that belief in itself provable? Or should that faith of yours
 be consigned to the Venn diagram of unproveable bollocks (religious
 bollocks presumably)?


I have no faith. There is merely what is most likely given current
knowledge. By all means add to it.




[FairfieldLife] Re: Balloon of Ignorance Punctured by Needle of Scientific Curiosity

2013-03-25 Thread curtisdeltablues
--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@... wrote:

I have a bit of experience in a few areas in your list.

Bigfoot is how chicks know at fist glance that I am goat-like in my endowments. 
(I wear clown shoes to bars.) 

Orbs are the delightful things that fill out the upper part of a bikini.  I 
have done more than my share of making sure they are real by exposing them to 
scientific screw-tany. 

Leylines should always be smoothed out in your bed from the last frolic or the 
new girl may flee.

Palmistry is how we all manage between encounters with our partner.


Ok not my best but that's what I got.  Nice post is really all I wanted to say. 
 






 
 
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost1uk@ wrote:
 
  Re: The Venn Diagram Of Irrational Nonsense
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/339067
  
  Fowarded to FFL by a shade I met in a dream:
  
  My dear FFLers
  
  Until my eyes died and gave me all-seeing vision I was unaware 
  of your august journal. But what a shock to my ethereal 
  system! My life's work, what? Bollocks? BOLLOCKS? And all 
  neatly classified too: Religious BOLLOCKS, Quackery 
  BOLLOCKS, Pseudoscientific BOLLOCKS (now there's irony, 
  ed.), and (Lord preserve us) Paranormal BOLLOCKS. I am
  deeply humbled.
  
  Poor chap, eh? It seems the deceased was a Professor Archie 
  Roy:
 
 Yeah, poor chap indeed. I'd hate to have spent my entire life
 studying daydreams. But I only spent my idle teens doing it so
 I got off lightly.
 
  
   A fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and professor of 
  Astronomy at Glasgow University, Roy was the world authority 
  on the mechanics of orbits, on which he carried out research 
  long before computers were capable of doing the work for him. 
  In the 1960s and 1970s he worked as a consultant to Nasa, 
  helping to put the first man on the Moon. He also had an 
  asteroid, 5806 Archie-roy, named in his honour.
  
  But he became better known among the general public for his 
  research into the spirit world. This began in the 1950s after 
  he lost his way in Glasgow's old university library and found 
  shelves of books on spiritualism and psychical research.
 
 Spiritualism. Chortle. What did he think of ectoplasm?
  
  My first ignorant reaction was 'What is this rubbish doing in 
  a university library?', 
 
 S'funny, that was my first reaction. But many years later and
 with a complete lack of any reliable evidence for the paranormal
 I tend to side with the 'it's all bollocks' POV. Until some new
 evidence comes along that is. Archie never found any. Nor has
 anybody else. But my mind is always open. But it's got to be good.
 Nabby's youtube polemics don't cut the mustard.
 
 If you want to have a go at convincing us go ahead. Start wherever
 you like on the diagram. How about:
 
 Chemtrails
 Astrology
 Numerology
 Hollow Earth
 Moon landing denial
 Dowsing
 Bigfoot
 Leylines
 Orgone energy
 Palmistry
 Orbs
 
 Shouldn't be too hard as so many books and websites have been 
 written about them. In fact these subjects are so well known
 that it ought to be a breeze to sort the wheat from the chaff.
 
 Remember, just because a decorated scientist believes paranormal
 stuff it don't make it more likely to be true. Look at John Hagelin,
 he honestly thinks it's possible to predict the future using tea 
 leaves because all subatomic constituents were together during the 
 big bang!
 
 
 PS Do you want to buy my complete collection of The Fortean Times?





[FairfieldLife] Re: Balloon of Ignorance Punctured by Needle of Scientific Curiosity

2013-03-25 Thread PaliGap


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@... wrote:

 If you want to have a go at convincing us go ahead. Start wherever
 you like on the diagram. 

There are many things I don't believe in. Maybe I don't
believe in more than you (take Scientism for a start).

It's not my point that any of those things are true, or
justifiable. But I'm inclined to think that the they're
all bollocks reaction is, well, just a little bit 
...I don't know, perhaps crass is the word I'm looking
for.

Reincarnation was on the BOLLOCKS list. Avert your eyes:

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The soul that
rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its
setting, And Cometh from afar.

What a load of bollocks THAT was! Jeez - who writes this
crap? Any in-depth study of New Scientist or Scientific 
American shows there is just no bit of the brain that 
gets reincarnated. Quod Erat Demonstrandum!

Or take astrology. You would probably be inclined to mock
the idea of stars influencing our lives. Or deploy your
big guns viz. that the astronomy astrology is predicated
on is false and/or incomplete.

If so you would fail to appreciate the metaphysical subtlety
of (some) believers:

Astrology is based on the principle of synchronicity. 
The 'influence of the stars' does not exist in a causal
sense. There is no causal influence at all. Astrology
works - if this is the right word - in the way inscribed
on the tabula smaragdina:

What is below is like what is above.
And what is above is like what is below,
so that the miracle of the One may be accomplished.
http://www.astro.com/astrology/in_pa_synchro_e.htm

This is a metaphysics that can co-exist quite peacefully
with any aspect of modern science I would have thought.
It just posits the idea of reality as a totality.

I'm not saying I believe in it myself. I'm not sure what
I believe in. Or that it has any practical value (I called
it a metaphysics after all).

I'm just suggesting Respect, man...




[FairfieldLife] Re: Balloon of Ignorance Punctured by Needle of Scientific Curiosity

2013-03-25 Thread salyavin808


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, curtisdeltablues curtisdeltablues@... 
wrote:

 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@ wrote:
 
 I have a bit of experience in a few areas in your list.
 
 Bigfoot is how chicks know at fist glance that I am goat-like in my 
 endowments. (I wear clown shoes to bars.) 
 
 Orbs are the delightful things that fill out the upper part of a bikini.  I 
 have done more than my share of making sure they are real by exposing them to 
 scientific screw-tany. 
 
 Leylines should always be smoothed out in your bed from the last frolic or 
 the new girl may flee.
 
 Palmistry is how we all manage between encounters with our partner.
 
 
 Ok not my best but that's what I got.  Nice post is really all I wanted to 
 say.  

Hey, that was good!

I logged back in specifically to mention something I learned
about bigfoot but your post made me think that maybe he 
(or the cosmic joker) was having us on. Maybe not though...

I was at a conference of strange phenomena organised by
the Fortean Times. One of the speakers was a nice chap
called Loren Coleman. He is, or was, the worlds only 
professional bigfoot hunter, though he might prefer 
cryptozoologist. He's never actually seen one himself 
but he's met a lot of people who have.

His lecture was about bigfoot appendages. Really. He started
of with a slideshow about how coy people are about genitals
generally, showing loads of pics from science textbooks and 
depictions of early human cavepersons. All of who were turned conveniently to 
the side or had a leg strategically crossed 
over their nether regions. His point being it's such a part of 
culture and so ingrained we don't even notice we are looking
the other way. 

But when he interviewed bigfoot witnesses he'd ask them detailed questions 
about appearance and movement, noises made etc. Very
thorough. He also asked if the witness caught sight of the 
bigfoot's genitals. Usually they'd blush and say yes and the description given 
would be written down and left forgotten in notebooks.

Weird thing is, the descriptions given were all the same but
not in a way you'd expect. Loren would ask if they were like
human genitals? No. Chimpanzee or gorilla? If they didn't know
he'd give them a description and the answer would be no again.

So when Loren asked what sort of animal they most resembled
(if any) they would always say A horse and not just in size.
Apparently bigfoot have a most un-apelike manhood. Pretty weird
turn up I thought. Could everyone make up or imagine the same 
thing? Because of the cultural blindness for genitals he thinks
this qualifies as serious evidence as it isn't what you'd expect. Apparently. I 
don't know what a gorilla's todger looks like 
myself.

Can't say what it proves either, if anything. I can't see how a 
huge man-ape creature could be living wild in 21st century USA 
but that doesn't mean they don't. It was food for thought though
and a highlight of the weekend for me, something completely unexpected, a world 
within the world I thought I knew, even if
it is mad, deluded seekers running around the woods at night. 
I've been on ghost hunts and I know how we can kid ourselves 
when in a strange environment and especially when in a group. 


Here's the book if anyone fancies a read, he puts it all much 
better than me:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0743469755/cryptozoologi-20





 
  
  
  --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost1uk@ wrote:
  
   Re: The Venn Diagram Of Irrational Nonsense
   http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/339067
   
   Fowarded to FFL by a shade I met in a dream:
   
   My dear FFLers
   
   Until my eyes died and gave me all-seeing vision I was unaware 
   of your august journal. But what a shock to my ethereal 
   system! My life's work, what? Bollocks? BOLLOCKS? And all 
   neatly classified too: Religious BOLLOCKS, Quackery 
   BOLLOCKS, Pseudoscientific BOLLOCKS (now there's irony, 
   ed.), and (Lord preserve us) Paranormal BOLLOCKS. I am
   deeply humbled.
   
   Poor chap, eh? It seems the deceased was a Professor Archie 
   Roy:
  
  Yeah, poor chap indeed. I'd hate to have spent my entire life
  studying daydreams. But I only spent my idle teens doing it so
  I got off lightly.
  
   
A fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and professor of 
   Astronomy at Glasgow University, Roy was the world authority 
   on the mechanics of orbits, on which he carried out research 
   long before computers were capable of doing the work for him. 
   In the 1960s and 1970s he worked as a consultant to Nasa, 
   helping to put the first man on the Moon. He also had an 
   asteroid, 5806 Archie-roy, named in his honour.
   
   But he became better known among the general public for his 
   research into the spirit world. This began in the 1950s after 
   he lost his way in Glasgow's old university library and found 
   shelves of books on spiritualism and psychical 

[FairfieldLife] Re: Balloon of Ignorance Punctured by Needle of Scientific Curiosity

2013-03-25 Thread salyavin808


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost1uk@... wrote:

 
 
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@ wrote:
 
  If you want to have a go at convincing us go ahead. Start wherever
  you like on the diagram. 
 
 There are many things I don't believe in. Maybe I don't
 believe in more than you (take Scientism for a start).

Scientism? Ah yes, that weird sickness creationists like to
accuse the rational of suffering from.

 It's not my point that any of those things are true, or
 justifiable. But I'm inclined to think that the they're
 all bollocks reaction is, well, just a little bit 
 ...I don't know, perhaps crass is the word I'm looking
 for.

It's basically just a joke dude. But someone has thought
about it long enough to want to pick a fight with the more
credulous. I found it on Richard Dawkin's facebook page, I
bet you love him ;-)

 
 Reincarnation was on the BOLLOCKS list. Avert your eyes:
 
 Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The soul that
 rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its
 setting, And Cometh from afar.
 
 What a load of bollocks THAT was! Jeez - who writes this
 crap? Any in-depth study of New Scientist or Scientific 
 American shows there is just no bit of the brain that 
 gets reincarnated. Quod Erat Demonstrandum!

Erm, do poems constitute proof for you then? 

I see why you struggle so.

 
 Or take astrology. You would probably be inclined to mock
 the idea of stars influencing our lives. Or deploy your
 big guns viz. that the astronomy astrology is predicated
 on is false and/or incomplete.
 
 If so you would fail to appreciate the metaphysical subtlety
 of (some) believers:
 
 Astrology is based on the principle of synchronicity. 
 The 'influence of the stars' does not exist in a causal
 sense. There is no causal influence at all. Astrology
 works - if this is the right word - in the way inscribed
 on the tabula smaragdina:
 
 What is below is like what is above.
 And what is above is like what is below,
 so that the miracle of the One may be accomplished.
 http://www.astro.com/astrology/in_pa_synchro_e.htm
 
 This is a metaphysics that can co-exist quite peacefully
 with any aspect of modern science I would have thought.
 It just posits the idea of reality as a totality.

Except for the fact that it's complete bollocks it fits in 
with modern science just fine.

I think for astrology to fit in it would have to be have
a demonstrable ability to predict and explain. And it doesn't.
I can't think of a single way it makes sense. If it was cast-
iron dependable and could tell me something about my future
I couldn't predict then we'd have to accept it regardless of
its lack of an explainable mechanism. The fact that it can't 
is why it remains on the bollocks list. Or maybe I've got Mars
in Sagittarius, bound to make me a bit sceptical wouldn't you
say?

It would only be metaphysics if it didn't contradict our
experience. It can't exist in fairy land, obeying it's own
rules and conveniently being unavailable for testing when we
look to see if it's there, AND be part of our explanation of
the world. Unless there's something *seriously* weird going on...

 
 I'm not saying I believe in it myself. I'm not sure what
 I believe in. Or that it has any practical value (I called
 it a metaphysics after all).
 
 I'm just suggesting Respect, man...


I respect people right to believe whatever bollocks they want.

I demand a bit of evidence for something to elevate itself from
the world of hopes and dreams into the world of 'that's the way
it is' you can't keep something as a maybe *just* because there
are nice things said about it. Though I do like the nice things
too.




Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Balloon of Ignorance Punctured by Needle of Scientific Curiosity

2013-03-25 Thread Ravi Chivukula
Well stated Richard - that's the first thing i thought when I saw the Venn 
diagram, the Venn diagram wouldn't be complete without the Scientism bollocks 
and the Venn diagram itself.


On Mar 25, 2013, at 1:51 PM, PaliGap compost...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

 
 
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, salyavin808 fintlewoodlewix@... 
 wrote:
 
  If you want to have a go at convincing us go ahead. Start wherever
  you like on the diagram. 
 
 There are many things I don't believe in. Maybe I don't
 believe in more than you (take Scientism for a start).
 
 It's not my point that any of those things are true, or
 justifiable. But I'm inclined to think that the they're
 all bollocks reaction is, well, just a little bit 
 ...I don't know, perhaps crass is the word I'm looking
 for.
 
 Reincarnation was on the BOLLOCKS list. Avert your eyes:
 
 Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting: The soul that
 rises with us, our life's star, Hath had elsewhere its
 setting, And Cometh from afar.
 
 What a load of bollocks THAT was! Jeez - who writes this
 crap? Any in-depth study of New Scientist or Scientific 
 American shows there is just no bit of the brain that 
 gets reincarnated. Quod Erat Demonstrandum!
 
 Or take astrology. You would probably be inclined to mock
 the idea of stars influencing our lives. Or deploy your
 big guns viz. that the astronomy astrology is predicated
 on is false and/or incomplete.
 
 If so you would fail to appreciate the metaphysical subtlety
 of (some) believers:
 
 Astrology is based on the principle of synchronicity. 
 The 'influence of the stars' does not exist in a causal
 sense. There is no causal influence at all. Astrology
 works - if this is the right word - in the way inscribed
 on the tabula smaragdina:
 
 What is below is like what is above.
 And what is above is like what is below,
 so that the miracle of the One may be accomplished.
 http://www.astro.com/astrology/in_pa_synchro_e.htm
 
 This is a metaphysics that can co-exist quite peacefully
 with any aspect of modern science I would have thought.
 It just posits the idea of reality as a totality.
 
 I'm not saying I believe in it myself. I'm not sure what
 I believe in. Or that it has any practical value (I called
 it a metaphysics after all).
 
 I'm just suggesting Respect, man...
 
 


[FairfieldLife] Re: Balloon of Ignorance Punctured by Needle of Scientific Curiosity

2013-03-25 Thread salyavin808


--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost1uk@... wrote:

 Re: The Venn Diagram Of Irrational Nonsense
 http://groups.yahoo.com/group/FairfieldLife/message/339067
 
 Fowarded to FFL by a shade I met in a dream:
 
 My dear FFLers
 
 Until my eyes died and gave me all-seeing vision I was unaware 
 of your august journal. But what a shock to my ethereal 
 system! My life's work, what? Bollocks? BOLLOCKS? And all 
 neatly classified too: Religious BOLLOCKS, Quackery 
 BOLLOCKS, Pseudoscientific BOLLOCKS (now there's irony, 
 ed.), and (Lord preserve us) Paranormal BOLLOCKS. I am
 deeply humbled.
 
 Poor chap, eh? It seems the deceased was a Professor Archie 
 Roy:

Yeah, poor chap indeed. I'd hate to have spent my entire life
studying daydreams. But I only spent my idle teens doing it so
I got off lightly.

 
  A fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and professor of 
 Astronomy at Glasgow University, Roy was the world authority 
 on the mechanics of orbits, on which he carried out research 
 long before computers were capable of doing the work for him. 
 In the 1960s and 1970s he worked as a consultant to Nasa, 
 helping to put the first man on the Moon. He also had an 
 asteroid, 5806 Archie-roy, named in his honour.
 
 But he became better known among the general public for his 
 research into the spirit world. This began in the 1950s after 
 he lost his way in Glasgow's old university library and found 
 shelves of books on spiritualism and psychical research.

Spiritualism. Chortle. What did he think of ectoplasm?
 
 My first ignorant reaction was 'What is this rubbish doing in 
 a university library?', 

S'funny, that was my first reaction. But many years later and
with a complete lack of any reliable evidence for the paranormal
I tend to side with the 'it's all bollocks' POV. Until some new
evidence comes along that is. Archie never found any. Nor has
anybody else. But my mind is always open. But it's got to be good.
Nabby's youtube polemics don't cut the mustard.

If you want to have a go at convincing us go ahead. Start wherever
you like on the diagram. How about:

Chemtrails
Astrology
Numerology
Hollow Earth
Moon landing denial
Dowsing
Bigfoot
Leylines
Orgone energy
Palmistry
Orbs

Shouldn't be too hard as so many books and websites have been 
written about them. In fact these subjects are so well known
that it ought to be a breeze to sort the wheat from the chaff.

Remember, just because a decorated scientist believes paranormal
stuff it don't make it more likely to be true. Look at John Hagelin,
he honestly thinks it's possible to predict the future using tea 
leaves because all subatomic constituents were together during the 
big bang!


PS Do you want to buy my complete collection of The Fortean Times?







Re: [FairfieldLife] Re: Balloon of Ignorance Punctured by Needle of Scientific Curiosity

2013-03-25 Thread Ravi Chivukula
Thank you Richard for that little rap and those set of Koans - loved it !!!

If only the mystery and complexity of the existence could be so easily resolved 
through a set of beliefs - in this case Science and their mocking of other 
non-scientific beliefs through their Venn diagram of beliefs.


On Mar 25, 2013, at 4:46 PM, PaliGap compost...@yahoo.co.uk wrote:

 
 
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Ravi Chivukula chivukula.ravi@... 
 wrote:
 
  Well stated Richard - that's the first thing i thought when I saw the Venn 
  diagram, the Venn diagram wouldn't be complete without the Scientism 
  bollocks and the Venn diagram itself.
 
 (Sharp intake of breath) - What a thought Ravi! (Whose
 wee, little toe nail I am not fit to clip). Should that
 Venn diagram contain itself as a member? 
 
 If a Venn diagram of bollocks items were to contain 
 itself within itself, it would be expressing something
 true (that the diagram is bollocks). In which case it
 would NOT be bollocks and would have to snap to a reality
 outside the diagram to avoid a paradox. But then...
 (rinse  repeat).
 
 Is the set of all sets that are not members of themselves
 a member of itself?
 
 Duz me 'ead in. Mmmm... A nice feeling. Ze.
 
 


[FairfieldLife] Re: Balloon of Ignorance Punctured by Needle of Scientific Curiosity

2013-03-25 Thread Yifu
rightdoes the bollocks diagram contain itself in which case we enounter a 
paradox.  The way to effectively evade the paradox is to call a Venn diagram of 
everything...relative and Absolute; the Class of All Sets. The 
mathematician Cantor came up with a mathematical equivalency.  Label the Class 
of All Sets E. Conceptualize Infinity and the infinite set of all Infinities. 
Conceptualize such an infinite set of Infinite Sets but include the 
transcendental Absolute; labeling this OMEGA.  (O). Now O includes anything 
relative and Absolute, as well as finite.
Finally, 
E = O. The Class of All Sets is identical to the Infinite Absolute.  For Omega, 
we can substitute the word Brahman.
...
Corollary: Brahman is holographic and can be depicted by the Gohonzon. 
(mandala).
 http://nichirenscoffeehouse.net/GohonzonShu/index.html

--- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, PaliGap compost1uk@... wrote:

 
 
 --- In FairfieldLife@yahoogroups.com, Ravi Chivukula chivukula.ravi@ wrote:
 
  Well stated Richard - that's the first thing i thought when I saw the Venn 
  diagram, the Venn diagram wouldn't be complete without the Scientism 
  bollocks and the Venn diagram itself.
 
 (Sharp intake of breath) - What a thought Ravi! (Whose
 wee, little toe nail I am not fit to clip). Should that
 Venn diagram contain itself as a member? 
 
 If a Venn diagram of bollocks items were to contain 
 itself within itself, it would be expressing something
 true (that the diagram is bollocks). In which case it
 would NOT be bollocks and would have to snap to a reality
 outside the diagram to avoid a paradox. But then...
 (rinse  repeat).
 
 Is the set of all sets that are not members of themselves
 a member of itself?
 
 Duz me 'ead in. Mmmm... A nice feeling. Ze.