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From: ethan@utastro.UUCP (Ethan Vishniac)
Newsgroups: net.religion,net.origins
Subject: Re: personality/consciousness, naturalism/materialism
Message-ID: <1122@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Mar-85 12:37:17 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.1122
Posted: Mon Mar 18 12:37:17 1985
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Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
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Xref: watmath net.religion:6148 net.origins:880

> Words cut more than one way, though Rich. Suppose I got up one morning
> and, just of the wall, said that I believed in ghosts, and angels, and
> ESP, and UFOs and ETs on Alpha Centauri, and faith healing, and the
> real presence of Kali in my life. I may decide that they are natural
> but want to call them supernatural for some very pragmatic reasons.

Actually, I don't *disbelieve* in ETs on Alpha Centauri, and would be willing
to believe in them if presented with appropriate empirical evidence.  I'm
considerably more skeptical about the other items on that list, but I can
think of kinds of evidence that might persuade me on those topics too (not
that I ever expect to encounter such evidence).  People love to believe in
all sorts of things for which no physical evidence at all.  I would guess
that this is what Rich is talking about when he talks about the idiocy of
believing in the supernatural.  He seems to feel that life would improve
significantly if this stopped.  I'm not so sure about that, but I do have
a modest hope of my own, that is that people learn to tell the difference
between such beliefs and science.  A second best would be if people learned
to regard their favorite myths with the same sense of skepticism and tentative
acceptance that any good scientist accords his favorite hypothesis.

"Don't argue with a fool.      Ethan Vishniac
 Borrow his money."            {charm,ut-sally,ut-ngp,noao}!utastro!ethan

*Anyone who wants to claim these opinions is welcome to them.*