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LordofHats wrote: This thread was funner when it was just ghost stories, and less fun now that people are (poorly) debating the scientific method.
Anyone got anymore ghost stories? I heard a thumping outside the house once. Turned out to just be a deer sleeping on the back porch, but it was pretty damn freaky at the time.
No. I never experience any sort of strange, explainable phenomena. Either that means that I have an explanation for everything I have ever seen in my life, or my life is incredibly boring. Or possibly both.
To make up for it, here is a song of a ghost story:
Iron_Captain wrote: . Either that means that I have an explanation for everything I have ever seen in my life, or my life is incredibly boring. Or possibly both.
Plus short, don't forget short.
One of the hallmarks of being a teenager is thinking you know everything, one of the hallmarks of getting old is realizing that you know very little and understand even less.
We find comfort among those who agree with us - growth among those who don't. - Frank Howard Clark
The wise man doubts often, and changes his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubts not; he knows all things but his own ignorance.
The correct statement of individual rights is that everyone has the right to an opinion, but crucially, that opinion can be roundly ignored and even made fun of, particularly if it is demonstrably nonsense!” Professor Brian Cox
Mad Doc Grotsnik wrote: So, I if I go to the Police, and explain that some goon just pointed a gun at me in the park and threatened my life, no crime could possibly have happened, and the Police don't need to log it or investigate it at all, because there's only my testimony, yes?
You really don't understand that there is a difference in being an eye witness in scientific matter (it was a big foot I saw in the forest!) and being an eye witness in law matter (it was a mugger I saw in the forest!)?
I have the results of the last chamber: You are a horrible person. That's what it says: A horrible person... We weren't even testing for that.
Again, I refer you back to my reports earlier in the thread. You want to show off your science clevers, have a read and come back to me. Because you’ll find at no point have I said they were most definitely supernatural in origin. It’s just what I saw and/or experienced.
This is a genuinely friendly challenge, not a calling you out and being a Richard about it.
I’ve experienced stuff I can’t explain. So don’t be a science bore about it. Stop talking up your method, and instead apply it,
Automatically Appended Next Post:
timetowaste85 wrote: Yeah, honestly it must be awful to not believe in anything except that which you can physically reach out and touch. Gives no sense of wonder. Oh well, I guess some people just have to be horribly negative and tell us how stupid we all are for believing there is something more. Poor poor us (aka, quit pissing in the Cheerios).
There’s plenty of wonder in science. It’s something that genuinely fascinated me.
But those that simply go *snort snort snort.....syuns noob’ I rank no differently to Bible literalists. They’re not willing to have their position challenged. Or to address what people are reporting, beyond ‘can’t be, because science’.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2018/11/14 21:26:58
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
LordofHats wrote: This thread was funner when it was just ghost stories, and less fun now that people are (poorly) debating the scientific method.
Again, this thread is quite a lens into who would be fun at parties.
This thread is a lens in to who reads thread titles. Not a thread about ghost stories. So debating with people about whether or not they actually experienced something and their unwillingness to provide evidence beyond anecdotal should be par for the course.
I am sorry this thread isn't what you want it to be. I think we should have a Ghost Stories thread. They are fun, interesting, and great storytelling experiences. But they are still stories and not based in reality. Nobody is trying to prove the Hash Slinging Slasher is real beyond a wink, nod, and a "you never know!"
Again, I refer you back to my reports earlier in the thread. You want to show off your science clevers, have a read and come back to me. Because you’ll find at no point have I said they were most definitely supernatural in origin. It’s just what I saw and/or experienced.
This is a genuinely friendly challenge, not a calling you out and being a Richard about it.
I’ve experienced stuff I can’t explain. So don’t be a science bore about it. Stop talking up your method, and instead apply it,
I cannot give any explanation based on your brief description of the events.
Most likely explanation is your mind playing tricks on you. For example your halloween story has you already in mood for supernatural explanation.
Why the explanation is automatically ghosts and ghoulies, though. As likely explanation would be Faerie Magic or Moonbase Nazi Mind Control Ray...
There’s plenty of wonder in science. It’s something that genuinely fascinated me.
But those that simply go *snort snort snort.....syuns noob’ I rank no differently to Bible literalists. They’re not willing to have their position challenged. Or to address what people are reporting, beyond ‘can’t be, because science’.
I'm not a "Bible literalist" in the sense of that I'm actually willing to change my mind on things if I actually get some evidence on it.
If an Angel suddenly materialize in front of me, I have no choise but examine my belief (or lack of it) in the Biblical God and his Angelic Host... Same thing if a ghost comes before me to rattle his chains...
But no such thing has occured to me thus far, so I remain sceptical.
If I encounter something I cannot explain (easy thing as I'm not that good on explaining things), the default position for me is not "Aliens!" or "Lizardmen from the centre of earth!". I believe the thing can be explained even if I don't have the explanation for it...
I have the results of the last chamber: You are a horrible person. That's what it says: A horrible person... We weren't even testing for that.
All this 'science' talk has done nothing to refute my stories, which did happen and are 100% complete fact. I actually challenge the disbelievers to provide evidence that they did not happen.
KTG17 wrote: All this 'science' talk has done nothing to refute my stories, which did happen and are 100% complete fact. I actually challenge the disbelievers to provide evidence that they did not happen.
Now you're just trolling.
I have the results of the last chamber: You are a horrible person. That's what it says: A horrible person... We weren't even testing for that.
You know, this reminds me about another time I prefer to not remember. It involves a well on my great aunt's farm. Some ways from the house was an old school well, complete with the hand crank and bucket, which they still used. There was an eerie presence around the well, and I found out some time later that a young boy who previously lived on the farm 100 years ago had actually fallen in and drown. People speculated it was his ghost haunting the area.
But this story doesn't involve that boy. It involves a garden gnome in my great aunt's front yard that would come to life between the time of 7:30 and 8:30 every Saturday morning. He would tap his pipe on the glass window of the guest room of where I slept, demanding that I come outside and play. Once the sun came up over the trees however, he would go back to his spot and become a statue until next Saturday. Now, why only on Saturdays I do not know. But what I did come to learn about him the one day I did go out and play, has stayed with me forever.
To be continued...
This message was edited 2 times. Last update was at 2018/11/15 18:00:43
Never seen anything much, although I do recall having heard some rather odd noises on a number of occasions.
For instance about 10 years ago I was still living with my parents. We had a ping pong table down in the basement. On several occasions from the top of the stairs I heard the distinctive sound of a game taking place down there.
Which was odd considering it was 2am, everyone else was asleep at the other end of the house, and I had been on the computer by the top of the stairs leading down there for the entire evening, so would have known if anyone had gone down there.
I didn't bother to investigate further. Just figured it meant I was up too late and should go to bed.
On another more recent occasion while I was at my parents house for dinner, while eating we heard a sudden burst of laughter from the bottom of the stairs. Sounding like a middle aged woman. We all just kind of looked at each other for a moment, then shrugged and carried on eating.
I had a quick look downstairs after dinner, and found nothing. As you'd expect.
When i was a kid in the late 80's, every night when I went to go take a shower on the second floor of my house, Slimer from ghostbusters would chase me from the first floor, up the stairs, and into my bathroom.
Oh, when I was in the army, I would pull guard duty for 18+ hours, and towards the end of my shift, I would see little shadowy demons on in the bushes as I was fighting staying awake.
This is pretty much the extent of anything supernatural in reality....
Ayn Rand "We can evade reality, but we cannot evade the consequences of evading reality"
2018/12/05 12:06:07
Subject: Re:Anyone every experience any hauntings?
The police use witless testimony as ONE source - which is enough to establish probable cause. Corroborating evidence is usually needed to get to trial.
I'm OVER 50 (and so far over everyone's BS, too).
Old enough to know better, young enough to not give a ****.
That is not dead which can eternal lie ...
... and yet, with strange aeons, even death may die.
But Doc, you've made a jump from eyewitness "I saw something and this is what I think I saw" to eyewitness "I saw something, this is what I definitely saw and it was supernatural".
The first is evidence, the later is speculation.
No proposition for the supernatural, or religious intervention, has ever been successfully tested or backed up with any evidence beyond "this is what I think I saw".
And people are not prosecuted for crimes purely on one persons say so (at least not in a country with a functioning judicial system - otherwise She Who Shall Not Be Named would have been locked up in January 2017). There has to be supporting evidence. An eyewitness account is evidence but it is not, by itself, definitive.
I’ve come around to the idea that ghosts are real. I don’t mean the spirits of the dead. But I also don’t mean delusions. I think we are indeed haunted, by our losses and our grief, by those hopes of ours that never come to blossom. These “ghosts” may have no existence independent of our experience of them, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t real.
So you’ve concrete evidence to rule it out entirely then?
If not, try not to be such a bore! Cryptids? Some were found to be real (Mountain Gorilla). Lycanthropy? Not supernatural, just mental health, perhaps with genetic oddities.
By all means seek to prove it’s not. But you cannot do that from a stand point of ‘it’s clearly not’. That is not scientific, no?
Fed up of Scalpers? But still want your Exclusives? Why not join us?
Burden of proof is on the claimant. I will believe that supernatural things exist when there is data to support the claim and it stands up to the scientific process and is proven to be factual.
No. But I don't need to. You mistake where the burden of proof lies.
By all means seek to prove it’s not. But you cannot do that from a stand point of ‘it’s clearly not’. That is not scientific, no?
Again you mistake. It doesn't come from a position of "it's clearly not". There are already valid explanations for why people think they encounter the supernatural that don't require pixies and goblins to be real. Scientists have conducted many studies on it. What the human mind is capable of deceiving itself into believing is a truly fascinating subject and comfortably explains all paranormal and miraculous anecdotes.
The evidence you or any other witness may attest to is indeed evidence, just not for the conclusion that you wish it to be. The explanation is material, not supernatural. That is what enables us to discard such flights of fantasy as not real.
What is boring is to hear someone declare that they believe something, in spite of evidence to the contrary, purely because they want to believe it. But that line of talking leads us down the current state of politics, which ist verboten.
