Iliketurtles

The audiobooks are way better! The epilogue at the end of the last book was very very very good. Sins of our fathers is a mini novella about 60 pages or so and set after the last book, coming out in march. That will be the end of it, but the authors are working on a new story in a different universe coming out in the next few years.

True dat.

We agree on something for once +1

thedaobuns.com It is a forum for daoist bunnies (buns is short for bunnies)

Well since I am third eye blind (band is alright too...) I feel that I need to use logic, reason, and the best evidence I can find to use as a walking stick and feel my way around this reality. Different strokes for different folks.

I guess it is a personal choice. It doesn't seem reasonable to believe things with no good evidence for them. I admit certainly there are unknown unknowns, but for me at least the need to base my beliefs on the best evidence available to me.

Anything that is regarded as supernatural, once backed up by objective evidence becomes regarded as natural. Ball lightning would be an example of this, we once thought it was supernatural, now that proof of it exists it is regarded as a natural phenomenon and has even been recreated in a lab.

I guess what I am trying to communicate is that spirits are a part of the natural world we live in, just as much as x-rays, gamma rays, and magnetic fields are.

Radio-waves are all around us, same for x-rays, gamma rays, cosmic rays, magnetic fields, and all sorts of things that we lack the sense organs to directly perceive. Did you know when you peel scotch tape it generates x-rays? https://www.technologyreview.com/2008/10/23/217918/x-rays-made-with-scotch-tape/ So all of that is happening now, right here in our present and current world, universe, reality whatever you want to call it. We have built instruments which allow us to translate these things into something we can see. What I am getting at is that just because something is invisible and imperceptible doesn't mean it isn't real, and it isn't present in our immediate environment. As Cosmic4z (force?) put it we create a conceptual distinction in our mind, real physical material world over here, and imperceptible spiritual world over there. The two worlds which we divide reality into are merely one world. There is no X-ray world, and Gamma-ray world, and there is no spiritual world. There is only the reality we find ourselves in currently, and we know almost next to nothing about it.

Well spoken! When I hear people talk about the "spirit world" it makes my skin crawl. To me it sounds like them saying, the "radio wave world" or "x-ray world". Just because our sense organs did not evolve to directly perceive certain aspects of reality doesn't make them any less real.

Sounds like they figured out it's best if they don't talk shop here on this forum. People that want to argue about how dumb they are can do so over on that other forum, and this place will have far less disruption (in theory). Seems like a win-win?

thedaobuns.com is where you want to go if you miss talking to them. Buns, short for bunnies.

Just to cherish the miracle we call life.

I guess it would depend on what type of supernatural claim was being documented as to which professionals would or would not be relevant.

If I am doing an observational study I want to make sure qualified professionals are present, and not people like Giorgio A. Tsoukalos. I wouldn't take evidence gathered by Giorgio A. Tsoukalos seriously, and I wouldn't expect others to either. As to getting published in a top reputable journal, I suppose that might be possible if you had your professor work with you, but I would think it would be much harder to publish directly. Remember there are thousands of predatory journals that will publish any nonsense so long as their fees get paid. https://www.livescience.com/59927-midi-chlorians-paper-accepted-by-journals.html Mitochondria or Midi-Chlorians? 'Star Wars' Hoax Paper Published in 4 Journals

If I am doing and observational study, I want reasonable, rational and qualified professionals present to do their best to rule out any funny business. I do not want people like Giorgio A. Tsoukalos spearheading the investigation. This seems reasonable to me to have qualified people doing the work.

https://thegeekanthropologist.com/2015/09/11/so-youre-an-undergraduate-and-you-want-to-get-published/ As an undergrad, I wouldn’t attempt to get your paper published in Cell or Annual Review of Immunology, simply because of their rankings and impact factor.

Anything that can be recorded and documented can be faked. In the future it may be possible to fake DNA evidence on the fly too. In the end we can only do the best we can do.

There is a reason most papers (edit: published in reputable top journals) are published by people with PhDs in their relevant fields, and not by random laypeople off the street. When a journal rejects a paper written by some random slob who flunked out of 8th grade that is not an appeal to authority. It is not an appeal to authority to want someone who is qualified to do the job, to do the job. When you look over someone's resume to make sure they are qualified, that is not an appeal to authority.

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So there is a difference between an observational study done with qualified professionals present to do their best to rule out fraud occurring, and capturing that on video, from a photograph someone took and claimed faeries were there. What I am describing is a best case effort to document a phenomenon. Short of being there in person I do not know of any better means to document something.

Ultimately we can only do the best we can do. Gathering a team of professionals, doing their best to rule out fraud and capturing it all on camera is about as good as we can do. You can either accept it or reject it.

You can make a solid case for something on video (which is superior to oral or written testimony), in a controlled environment, with professionals present to make a best case effort to ensure no funny business is going on.