(2018-02-15, 05:15 PM)Steve001 Wrote: (1): Though I have no firm opinion it should noted no one has after thousands of years shown incontrovertible evidence of life after death. I'm pragmatic.
(2): My position is don't argue what might be true, what you want to be true and what you think is true. It's show me it's true. If that isn't done then it's all just hopeful thinking.
(1): Firstly, what is and is not incontrovertible is completely subjective just like all evidence which is why the concept of something being "self-evident" is ridiculous since what counts as evidence got that way because of someone's interpretation. In this case incontrovertible can only mean in your personal opinion. Secondly, actually looking for "incontrovertible" evidence is probably the least possible scientific position to hold. It completey denies statistcal reasoning. According to your argument an engineer who's designing a house MUST be a psuedo-scientific crackpot because there is no evidence, incontrovertible or otherwise, that THAT particular house will be structurally sound because it does not yet exist for such evidence to be collected. But of course engineers don't take a wait and see approach because it's ridiculous, they look at the statistics of similar methods used before and assume that, probably, this house will behave the same way. And sometimes they're wrong.
Statistically, the evidence of psi is completely incontrovertible regardless of there not being one single smoking gun study. The reasons for there not being such a study are what should get debated. Because chances are the answer will have a lot more to do with funding, education, technology and general resource allocation than anything to do with psi itself.
(2): Literally you are saying that people are only allowed to believe what you tell them they are allowed to believe. Heated debate about what may, be thought to be, or desired to be true is one of the fundamental lynchpins of organized and established science. I mean, peer reviews are not for the faint of heart so I've heard since the whole idea is to nitpick every possible thing about your study and your conclusions. It isn't possible for someone to just "show you the evidence" asyou suggest because as I said above evidence is ultimately just a belief. Thus the idea that it's just hopeful thinking unless someone can do that without debate or touching on what they think might be true or whatever is just retarded. It cannot be done, certainly not in a non-ideological way. It is not a rational position to hold.
Granted the scientific establishment is far more about people having a job that pays them so they can live comfortably and so does not actually have any of the rigour it is mythologized to have anymore if it ever did. And since pay is involved the studies that get published or get past peer review are the ones that the money holders want to get there, not the ones that have good methods or interesting results. I've been told that, point blank, from a research psychologist by the way. That, if the government just doesn't like the results you're getting because it goes against their narrative, they will shut down your research and there is numerous proven cases of this that you can find. Here's a good compilation piece od the general problems in the field for a start:
http://theinternationalforecaster.com/to...of_Science
And that's all
before the media and other monied interests get involved in the popularisation of the research or its ideas. Which of course will be the ideas that suit the interests of those paying for their popularisation. Again, if you want to look for why psi hasn't had its one landmark study, start there, because they've already got the statistics despite the restrictions and demonization. I'd argue that demonization is incredibly telling as well given some of its sources and their histories. Example, The seralini GMO study and how Monsanto smeared him over it:
https://steemit.com/news/@corbettreport/...r-campaign
Let alone all the other interesting policies and regulations around who can ask what questions of who in that whole industry and who sits on what boards and what their previous employments were, but that's another thing entirely.
Kinda reminds me of something a Chinese official said about some economic policy issue or something they were having with America, I can't remember the details anymore but the saying was "You'll know how true it is by how strongly they deny it." I've found this to be true more often than not with these things. I suspect psi will turn out to be just another example of it.