Originally posted by bigfatfurrytexan
What amazes me is the ability of such people to say that something isn't real. Especially when it is witnessed by thousands annually. Perhaps they
do not see how their own evolution of thoughts would disagree with them? They think it isn't real because they don't yet have the imagination to
make it rational to them, possibly? Such would be expected from people who have a deeper understanding, or a different understanding that you and I
(they require a different set of standards for proof).
Thanks Tex. Another good post yourself.
All good points. And what is also very interesting to me is how science is assumed to be real by alot of young people and how they aren't ever truly
taught to question the status quo of scientific understanding. Science is a best guess based on observable phenomenon that can be measured, tested,
and verified. And in some cases there is a widespread assumption within the scientific community that certain phenomenon must be real because the
theory jives with what IS observable and verifiable. But this is contradictory to true understanding of the universe around us.
The entire foundation of science was built on the shoulders of people who challenged the status quo at times when it could mean incarceration,
torture, and/or death. There is always a risk involved in challenging everything people always believed but never truly understood and that is a risk
most scientists will simply not take. But that's really how the big discoveries in science are made..
People these days risk their careers by studying things like the paranormal or UFO's for MANY reasons when it is ASSUMED within the mainstream
scientific community that they are pseudoscience and not real.. With pseudoscientific topics there is, honestly, a lack of scientific scrutiny that,
in turn, makes many consider the subject pseudoscience because there is a lack of official, scientific, peer-reviewed research. Michio Kaku recently
said on a commercial for his radio show that the reason the paranormal isn't real is because the same people who research the paranormal are forced
to advocate the phenomenon. In other words, they spread the hype in order to get attention and, in some cases, money. While that is true to a
degree, it doesn't in any way, shape, or form prove or disprove the reality of the paranormal. It avoids that question altogether. Its a clever
dodge.
Its very easy for scientists to make an argument against pseudoscience because of the lack of scientific evidence, but that is only because they
don't do the research in the first place. And making an argument like that against pseudoscience without even knowing whether or not a phenomeon is
real doesn't make much sense.. Especially coming from a world renouned physicist like Michio Kaku..
But it doesn't have to be that extreme. When scientists challenge what is currently believed to be true about the universe, they are scoffed at,
delegitimized by their peers, and pretty much tossed to the side of the road. It doesn't have to involve aliens, UFO's, or the paranormal either.
It could simply involve challenging the status quo regarding what we understand about gravity, quantum physics, geophysical phenomenon, etc.. There
are MANY examples throughout history when the people who were "on the money" with their theories and ideas were simply discredited by their peers
and tossed out to dry because those same theories and ideas didn't fit with the current scientific model of what was thought to be real at the time.
It still happens today and will probably always happen. But it is these same kind of people who challenge everyone and everything we think we know
who make some of the most groundbreaking discoveries ever. Nicola Tesla, Einstein, Steven Hawking, Galileo, Kepler, Copernicus, Newton, ALL of these
people challenged the status quo to the betterment of human understanding. That is so often forgotten..
Science, itself, is a matter of what we think we know at any point in time about the universe around us. It is always changing as new scientific
discoveries are made, and sometimes what was believed/assumed to be real, based on other observations, is completely disproven. Look at the UFO
phenomenon. How can any logical scientist challenge the reality of UFO's when they
1-have no idea in the first place
2-refuse to do the research and scientific studies to even justify such a stance and have it supported with something tangible.
3-probably haven't even heard of the more compelling evidence of UFO's. Things like the abduction phenomeonon, human implants, well-documented
sightings involving astronauts, pilots, and military personnel, not to mention the amazing footage taken by our own space administration in orbit
around the earth over the past few years which has no official NASA explanation other than ice or space junk (when, at least in some cases, it is
quite obviously neither).
And you can't ignore the fact that nearly every manned space mission since the dawn of space flight has experienced some kind of unknown object/UFO.
We still have astronauts coming forward about their UFO experiences from the apollo missions (people like Edgar Mitchell who just came forward to
share his experiences). I mean, for crying out loud. NASA even has a military encrypted radio for discussing UFO's in orbit.. And time after time
our own NASA astronauts have been caught on live TV broadcasts referring to objects as "UFO" and "alien spacecraft". NONE of this is even
considered by the same scientists who tell us that these things aren't real. Aren't real based on what? A lack of scientific scrutiny and
objective research?
-ChriS
[edit on 4-9-2008 by BlasteR]
Besides Boyd Bushman has already shown that strong magnets will fall slower than an
equal mass 
