Active Users:811 Time:16/06/2026 02:04:32 AM
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. Tashmere Send a noteboard - 06/12/2010 03:15:37 AM
Just curious. How could I in theory go about checking whether men walked on the moon? How would I go about proving this to myself or to a skeptic in a manner that would actually verify it happened without relying on someone elses word? I am an agnostic in this. I have to admit that some of the evidence for it looks and sounds pretty dodgy. Fortunately my faith in science doesn't rely on that. If it ever came out it was staged I would just shrug my shoulders. It just isn't that big of a deal if someone did that 40 years ago. But it isn't something that I can duplicate or that anyone else has the spare cash to duplicate.


If you could go to the moon (a big if, but bear with me), there would either be evidence that men walked there, or there wouldn't be. That's what "falsifiable" means: in theory, the assertion that men walked on the moon could be shown to be false, by a lack of physical evidence.

Some people are more sensitive to spiritual things than others. For them it is hard to imagine that other people may lack that extra sense that seems such a natural part of them. They don't understand how someone can not feel the things they do and attribute it to the other person not trying hard enough or blocking themselves from feeling it on purpose. If you were to tell them that their experiences were not duplicatible they might not believe that you had ever tried to actually duplicate the experience because when they experimented it worked for them. It takes awhile to figure out that we are not all made the same and to allow for that in our judgements of each other. Just because one person can do something and the other can't does not make them inferior or mean that they are lying or crazy or whatever.


I do understand what you mean here. An analogy I came up regarding this goes as follows: Imagine two people, one raised on land (living in the open air) and one raised deep under the ocean, surrounded by water. They would both find it uncomfortable, if not intolerable, to switch places. The first one would be disturbed by the increased pressure, while the second one would feel incredibly vulnerable without being immersed in the comforting sea.

Nevertheless, my main objection to religious experiences is not the fact of the experiences themselves. It's the idea that I should accept the experiencer's own religious explanation, when logically simpler ones exist, and the experiencer is not necessarily particularly qualified to come up with an explanation for the experience.

And you are right. It is nice that they have proof now. A whole new world of possibilities has opened up to their view.

:)
Tash


:)


So it sounds like someone may have tried to force their beliefs on you or at least their conclusions and it has left a bad taste in your mouth?

Thank you for being thoughtful and patiently trying to explain what you mean to me. It is helping me to be more open trying to understand what you are saying even if I am a little slow at it.
You get points for doing this respectfully.

:)
Teresa
Reply to message
More Important Than Soccer: Completely new type of DNA discovered - 02/12/2010 04:48:51 PM 1731 Views
that is TOTALLY inappropriate - 02/12/2010 04:58:47 PM 945 Views
Of course there is... - 02/12/2010 05:02:30 PM 951 Views
I saw, I'm just not in the proper habit yet - 02/12/2010 05:35:33 PM 1042 Views
Crazy awesome. - 02/12/2010 05:07:49 PM 1012 Views
Re: Crazy awesome. - 02/12/2010 10:32:56 PM 845 Views
It's confusing, that's for sure. - 03/12/2010 02:01:11 AM 849 Views
lol, or maybe not - 09/12/2010 07:49:19 PM 1222 Views
So the movie Evolution was real! - 02/12/2010 05:24:16 PM 932 Views
Nice reference, but not quite. - 02/12/2010 10:32:04 PM 878 Views
Thanks for clearing that up - 02/12/2010 11:23:36 PM 991 Views
Wow. *NM* - 02/12/2010 05:32:08 PM 517 Views
I love how it was found in a massively polluted lake - 02/12/2010 05:35:22 PM 861 Views
The answer to your question is: Pretty damn cool. *NM* - 02/12/2010 05:33:54 PM 499 Views
Goddamnit I am SO PISSED that I have a meeting at 2!!! - 02/12/2010 05:50:21 PM 835 Views
I won't pretend I know enough about biology to understand the impact of this - 02/12/2010 06:26:24 PM 989 Views
It's like finding a type of rock that eats laughter - 02/12/2010 06:51:15 PM 838 Views
I think I had an ex once that was made of arsenic. *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:10:57 PM 474 Views
Maris? *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:33:14 PM 512 Views
Well you are made of poison, so that makes sense. *NM* - 02/12/2010 07:39:09 PM 488 Views
Curse you, poetic justice! Curse you! - 04/12/2010 03:38:37 AM 1027 Views
So, is it an alien? - 02/12/2010 07:19:49 PM 983 Views
I don't see why it couldn't be natural - 02/12/2010 07:22:49 PM 895 Views
They haven't mentioned anything saying it's not from Earth, I think - 02/12/2010 08:03:44 PM 1004 Views
It was funded by NASA, I think - 02/12/2010 08:15:15 PM 1018 Views
lols. *NM* - 02/12/2010 08:17:40 PM 484 Views
The bacteria in question is part of a known lineage - 02/12/2010 08:07:34 PM 1220 Views
see my note below - 02/12/2010 08:13:35 PM 991 Views
Maybe - 02/12/2010 08:23:16 PM 931 Views
it could be there are some in the lake naturally - 02/12/2010 09:00:42 PM 836 Views
Huh! I must have missed that part. *NM* - 02/12/2010 09:05:15 PM 470 Views
No it isn't! - 02/12/2010 07:39:34 PM 999 Views
I really didn't understand that, either. - 04/12/2010 10:44:51 AM 1010 Views
So, apparently, this bacteria doesn't use arsneic for its DNA in its natural state? - 02/12/2010 08:06:02 PM 892 Views
While awesome, it's a bit of a problem. - 02/12/2010 09:04:22 PM 896 Views
Re: While awesome, it's a bit of a problem. - 02/12/2010 10:34:34 PM 835 Views
It's interesting, but not completely shocking - 02/12/2010 08:08:46 PM 1066 Views
I don't understand why this is such a big deal. It always seemed common sense to me that there are - 02/12/2010 10:40:22 PM 1032 Views
It's much more than an educated guess. - 02/12/2010 11:59:18 PM 1100 Views
You can't "know" from this distance. - 03/12/2010 03:13:05 AM 812 Views
Why not? - 03/12/2010 04:42:15 AM 1075 Views
obviously you have not learned to look at the back label on the car *NM* - 04/12/2010 07:04:42 PM 445 Views
Yes, we can. - 04/12/2010 06:04:48 PM 1242 Views
The problem probably is with me. - 04/12/2010 08:00:56 PM 885 Views
No, they aren't. - 04/12/2010 10:01:25 PM 906 Views
Depends on how you view evidence, no? - 05/12/2010 04:50:11 AM 1141 Views
There are correct and incorrect ways to view evidence. - 05/12/2010 05:42:41 AM 836 Views
Are you baiting me to bait you? - 05/12/2010 06:41:49 AM 1080 Views
I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:26:39 AM 1076 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:08:04 PM 857 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 05/12/2010 07:56:43 PM 1048 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 06/12/2010 03:15:37 AM 1017 Views
Re: I'm just carrying on a conversation. - 06/12/2010 09:18:51 PM 929 Views
Okay. - 06/12/2010 11:22:44 PM 1087 Views
I watched that and was very intrigued - 03/12/2010 01:31:29 AM 759 Views
It's neat, but I object to the circus act - 03/12/2010 02:52:46 AM 1014 Views
yah, and it's kind of shooting themselves in the foot anyways - 03/12/2010 09:10:21 AM 902 Views
xkcd - 03/12/2010 10:35:24 AM 1056 Views

Reply to Message