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Post by badwolf on Nov 24, 2014 12:51:22 GMT -5
Many more people have died than there are coelecanths in the world. Ummm ... do you have a point here? I'm missing something, obviously. You were saying that we thought there were no coelacanths because we hadn't seen one. But it is a rare fish that occupies a small area of the globe, whereas billions of people have died almost everywhere. So if there were ghosts, we'd all see them. We could count on seeing them. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2014 12:53:47 GMT -5
Have even the most devout believers in ghosts argued that everyone who dies manifests later as a ghost?
I don't believe I've ever seen that position articulated. Where are you getting it from?
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Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 24, 2014 12:54:13 GMT -5
Many more people have died than there are coelecanths in the world. Ummm ... do you have a point here? I'm missing something, obviously. I think the point being made was that with the billions upon billions of people who've died throughout time, that we should be up to our butts in ghosts if they were real. Unlike a presumably smaller number of the fish. I don't really have an opinion either way, so I don't really have a stake in the argument. Just what I got from what badwolf said. EDIT: and badwolf clarified while I was typing, so never mind. As to the "does every dead person end up a ghost", no one really knows what the process/cause of becoming a ghost is (if there is such a thing), so no way to say. Such are the inconsistencies that cause science to say they probably don't exist. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2014 12:54:39 GMT -5
(Apologies, BTW, if I'm coming off even more irascible as usual. I'm having to write a speech for someone to give at a banquet in DC next month. I'm no more a speechwriter than I am a quantum physicist.)
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2014 12:55:08 GMT -5
Ummm ... do you have a point here? I'm missing something, obviously. I think the point being made was that with the billions upon billions of people who've died throughout time, that we should be up to our butts in ghosts if they were real. Unlike a presumably smaller number of the fish. I don't really have an opinion either way, so I don't really have a stake in the argument. Just what I got from what badwolf said. See my post above yours. |
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Post by DE Sinclair on Nov 24, 2014 13:01:10 GMT -5
I think the point being made was that with the billions upon billions of people who've died throughout time, that we should be up to our butts in ghosts if they were real. Unlike a presumably smaller number of the fish. I don't really have an opinion either way, so I don't really have a stake in the argument. Just what I got from what badwolf said. See my post above yours. Yep, I missed those while replying. I edited mine. Basically "who knows" situation. But that would be an awful lot of ghosts. |
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Post by Slam_Bradley on Nov 24, 2014 13:03:27 GMT -5
Just substitute ghosts for ostriches.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2014 13:03:35 GMT -5
Possibly. Some believe that the percentage of living people who achieve revenant status is vanishingly (no pun intended!) small, depending on all sorts of circumstances. Some would argue that they're not revenants per se at all, but merely echoes or resonances or whatever of electromagnetic traces of the biochemical underpinnings of life, & would manifest only under extremely rare combinations of environmental factors. Etc. etc. etc.
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Post by Roquefort Raider on Nov 24, 2014 13:16:11 GMT -5
Some do indeed argue that, Dan, but I feel prompted to point out that there are far more people claiming they have seen ghosts than people claiming they have seen coelacanths. Yet only the latter managed to give evidence of it.
Not a logical proof either way, but it raises the question "why are ghosts so darn hard to catch even when you're looking for them"?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2014 13:19:51 GMT -5
Some do indeed argue that, Dan, but I feel prompted to point out that there are far more people claiming they have seen ghosts than people claiming they have seen coelacanths. Yet only the latter managed to give evidence of it. Not a logical proof either way, but it raises the question "why are ghosts so darn hard to catch even when you're looking for them"? I have the same question about girls -- well, women -- of the single persuasion, to be honest. |
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Post by badwolf on Nov 24, 2014 14:11:08 GMT -5
I have the same question about girls -- well, women -- of the single persuasion, to be honest. I'm skeptical of their existence, as well. |
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2014 14:13:27 GMT -5
They're sort of like ghosts, when you think about it. You hear anecdotes ... you see photos ... but where are they?
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Post by badwolf on Nov 24, 2014 14:16:02 GMT -5
Yep, it's always a friend of a friend of a friend...and the photos always turn out to be fake.
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2014 14:18:19 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Nov 24, 2014 14:20:07 GMT -5
I always thought the scientific community was too indignant and dismissive over concepts that didn't fit into their theories of the universe. The SF trope of parallel universes for example was thought to be as outlandish as ghost or after-life stories. That is until string-theory physics opened up the possibilities of parallel dimensions. Ghosts and after-life occurences might be manifestations of parallel universe convergences. EXcept that science has also pretty clearly (and depressingly, TBH) demonstrated that it's extremely unlikely that there will ever be a method to communicate with another one, with a very small amount of wriggle room for gravity waves. |
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