quisquose Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 It is not evidence of anything apart from a coin falling heads up 5 times or 1000 times. You might postulate a theory from your results but you cannot present it as evidence of a double headed coin. Coin tossing is an incredibly bad model to use anyway since the chanceometer resets to zero on every flip, making it 100% possible to get heads 1000 times from a bog standard tuppence. But evidence is not about proof or certainty or necessity, it is simply something that can contribute to belief. In this context absence of evidence can be evidence of absence, and most of us operate our day to day lives based on this concept. Oh, and I think my coin tossing example is perfectly okay as a descriptive device. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 But evidence is not about proof or certainty or necessity Yes it is. Anything else is a theory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Pitts Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 A ghost is the energy, soul or personality of a person who has died and is in limbo between this plane of existence and the next one. These spirits do not know they are dead and very often they have died under traumatic, or highly emotional circumstances. Ghosts can be perceived by the living in a number of ways: through sight (apparitions), sound (voices), smell (frangrances), touch - and sometimes they can just be sensed. So I don't think an atheist can believe in ghosts and not in the divine spirit which is GOD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Prime Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 Yes it is. Anything else is a theory. I'm following this with interest, both of you are engaging in a good debate which is unusual on SF. At the risk of being completely out of my depth I would add that evidence and proof are two separate things. In a courtroom plenty of evidence is presented to secure a prosecution but it doesn't necessarily constitute proof of course. It all starts to get very grey. An example I am interested in is that of UFO's. Huge objects have been detected many times by radar stations often doing speeds beyond human capability. The radar operators are not oddballs with an agenda but sober no nonsense trained staff. I would say that is excellent evidence of extra terrestrial vehicles since if no human could match the detected speed/size there is no other explanation. However is it proof? Some say yes others say not. Annoyingly religious types will laugh at the concept of UFO's for which there is evidence then tell you there is a God for which there is none at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tony Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 "speeds beyond publicly known human capability" Apologies for altering your quote, I'm sure that you get my point. I agree that this is an interesting area. Again though it's a moot point as to it being aliens as we are into the realms of mathematics, probability, physics and good old fashioned geography not to mention the aeons of time over which nano events (like the entire existence of planet Earth) happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Pitts Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 Without God there is no adequate explanation of how the universe was created or to explain our purpose in life . It is amazing that so many people believe that God is a fable, and they will go to great lengths to disprove that there isn't such a thing. I have seen a UFO hovering over Don Valley about 15 years ago. The UFO was shadowed by two helicopters, one red and one black with no markings. No mention in any of the local newspapers. So I do believe we are all part of one big universal brotherhood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Prime Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 "speeds beyond publicly known human capability" Apologies for altering your quote, I'm sure that you get my point. I agree that this is an interesting area. Again though it's a moot point as to it being aliens as we are into the realms of mathematics, probability, physics and good old fashioned geography not to mention the aeons of time over which nano events (like the entire existence of planet Earth) happen. I do and agree of course that the fastest machinery is unknown to 99.9999% of military personnel. However there is a limit, something the size of an ocean liner doing mach 10 is way beyond the likeliest extremes of our technology. As for probability and physics I take your point. I would have thought it a strong mathematical possibility that with the size of the universe the probability of Earth being the only source of life is low. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Prime Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 Without God there is no adequate explanation of how the universe was created or to explain our purpose in life . It is amazing that so many people believe that God is a fable, and they will go to great lengths to disprove that there isn't such a thing. I have seen a UFO hovering over Don Valley about 15 years ago. The UFO was shadowed by two helicopters, one red and one black with no markings. No mention in any of the local newspapers. So I do believe we are all part of one big universal brotherhood. Do we need an adequate explanation? We probably can't comprehend it. That doesn't mean we must fill in the gaps with a creator. That's my opinion anyway. Ancient books written by men, not God himeslf do not mean there is a God. However if God appears I'll be more than happy to believe in him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Pitts Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 We need faster than the speed of light vehicles to travel to the far end places in our universe and is not possible within the theories that we currently think explain our Universe. That does not mean that it is impossible, since our understanding of the Universe is very limited. Hopefully some way will be found to circumvent "The Laws of Physics". A wormhole is not really a means of going forward faster than light or backward in time, it's a shortcut so that something that was far away is very much closer. If you think of an ant on a piece of paper. If that ant could fold the paper around and poke a little hole right through it, it could get to the far end much faster than if it just walked the whole way around the paper. That's what a wormhole does in 3 Dimensional space. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sccsux Posted April 4, 2011 Share Posted April 4, 2011 Why would an atheist believe in an afterlife? None of the atheists I know believe in "ghosts":confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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