Survey on science, astrology, aliens & article
by Madame Quixote 31 Replies latest social current
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SacrificialLoon
Carl Sagan's "Demon Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark" should be required reading. It deals with debunking pseudoscience, and introduces critical thinking. In fact, it has several chapters devoted to alien abductions, and horoscopes.
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Madame Quixote
Alas, SL! If only science were as entertaining as . . . entertainment!
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proplog2
I wouldn't put alien visitations in the same category as Astrology.
Astrology claims to be a predictive method. The fact that the predictions are not statistically significant proves astrology to be erroneous.
Alien visitations is simply a matter of investigating the claims. It isn't a method of predicting. Like any personal experience you rank each individual experience on a scale of believability. And it IS possible that there may be extra dimensional or extra terrestial entities that have visited the earth.
Astrology IS scientifically absurd. There will never be enough evidence to prove astrology true.
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SacrificialLoon
Alien visitations are possible, but they haven't been proven, yet people believe in alien abductions, crystal power, q-ray braclets, and lots of other things that have not withstood scientific scrutiny. I've seen posters and T-Shirts with aliens on them with the saying "I want to believe" on them, which I think sums up their thought process nicely. They are biased towards believing in such things so they do, regardless of the facts that may present themselves, or the lack of facts/evidence to support such claims.
Since I mentioned Carl Sagan in my previous post, here he is talking about an alien abduction case in the PBS series Cosmos. This was made in 1979 so the production values aren't the best.
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Terry
And it IS possible that there may be extra dimensional or extra terrestial entities that have visited the earth.
What do you mean by "possible"?
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Terry
Alien visitations are possible, but they haven't been proven
And what do YOU mean by "possible"?
Or, better yet; do you ever use the word "impossible"?
If so, what is the criterion for saying something is impossible?
Just asking. Language intrigues me.
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JimWood
Extra dimensions are accounted for in string and M-theory. See http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/string_systems_030226.html
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Seeker4
There was an article in the last year or two in either GQ or Esquire (the latter, I think), called Idiot America. Great stuff. The Creation Museum figured in it, as you might assume.
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DannyBloem
yes it worries me that people are able to so easily believe absurd stuff....
anyway of course aliens can exists (probably they do). That does not mean that automatically alien abduction or visiting stories are true....
about the extra dimension, yes string theory allows for extra demensions, I do not thnik it allows for the posibility of aliens living there and visiting other dimension, as far as I understand it....
DB