Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | The Modern Antiquarian Forum

TomBo

1629 posts

Re: reality

May 20, 2004, 01:23

<The problem with solutions such as poltergeist and apparitions is that they are, in a sense, a religious reaction; something like: "this is beyond human understanding so let's attribute it to a deity (in this case a ghost)".>

I can only speak for myself, I guess, but that's certainly not what I meant. When I use terms like "poltergeist" and "ghost" it's as a convenient label for phenomenon that no other words describe (at least not so briefly - I could, of course, string together complicated sentences like "that phenomenon whereby banging noises are heard or objects explode"). When I use such terms I don't intend to make any comment on what causes these phenomenon, but simply to name them so that they can be easily discussed.

I'd also like to ask one question: if you're the sort of person who believes in wielding Occam's Razor (and I'm not accusing you of being that sort of person, although you may be!), then wouldn't even William of Ockham be forced to agree that the hypothesis of a spirit world is the simplest explanation for some paranormal phenomenon? That said: I'm not the sort of person who believes in wielding Occam's Razor (although I do believe in scientific method - which is a different thing to Occam's Razor, IMHO), so this question is a devil's advocate kind of thing.

In reply to:
Re: reality (Steve Gray)

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Re: reality (Squid Tempest)

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