Psychic abilities? How do those people do in the stock market, Sparky? :-) Steve Simels
Probably at least as well as people using their intellectual abilities do, if not somewhat better. Only intellectual abilities must seem like a delusion to you, as well, Simpy.
You really don't understand anything about statistics, do you. You and about 99% of the other pop-atheists who gas on as if they knew what they were talking about on this issue. The scientific demonstration of these phenomena rests on experiments demonstrating a higher than chance occurrence of them, which isn't uncommon with the science of small effects.* As Jessica Utts pointed out in her analysis which you've neither read nor understood, that has been demonstrated to a very, very high degree of statistical probability. Or what don't you understand about 10-20 except what it means? Ask the Eschatots who actually know something about science and mathematics to explain that number in terms of probability, though I doubt any of them will admit to its significance of that number in this area, they'd be too chicken to say that. I'm not.
It's too much to hope for that you'll read, never mind understand the thing sufficiently for it to annoy you, but Dean Radin and a colleague did an analysis of these issues in terms of casino gambling. One thing is certain, it would not be in someones' interest to make their ability to win money from casinos using psychic abilities widely known. As a movie gangster might put it, it might not be good for their health.
* As Radin also pointed out:
The combined 4.9 sigma result reported for the Higgs boson is hailed as a stunning achievement that took trillions of recorded events, billions of dollars, and thousands of scientists.
By contrast, several classes of combined psi effects already provide empirical results that are much, much greater than 5 sigma, with hardly any funding and a few handfuls of scientists working the problem.
You know, until somebody uses a Higgs boson in a consumer product, or to make a weapon or power an electrical generator or something, I'd decided I'm just not gonna believe in 'em.
ReplyDeleteI mean, unless you can do something with it in the "real" world, it must be false, right?
I thought it might be a good name for a vacuum cleaner. "Higgs digs out the toughest dirt...."
ReplyDeleteI'm sure Simels feels real smart and sciencey which is so much easier than taking statistics. Or knowing what you're talking about.
I do think popular atheism is a product of post-literacy and dumbed-down corporate culture. The stuff Sims has worked in his entire life.