RE: What philosophical evidence is there against believing in non-physical entities?
August 31, 2016 at 7:37 pm
(This post was last modified: August 31, 2016 at 7:48 pm by Panatheist.)
(August 31, 2016 at 6:29 pm)Rhythm Wrote: I strongly dislike it when people dismiss the fact that my wife is the coolest female in the world just because they've had no personal experiences of anything of the kind. I've had personal experiences to that effect daily for more than a decade now, and I value them greatly for what they are and what benefits they bring me.
Unfortunately, neither you nor I have corroborating data...so them's the breaks, and neither of us should take it too rough when someone dismisses either claim on that count.
I don;t know that not finding evidence of the paranormal has anything to do with atheism, btw. Plenty of atheists do believe in "the paranormal"...and plenty of theists don't.
I cannot of course prove to others what kind of purely subjective experiences I have. There are nevertheless reports of similar experiences that can be produced in various ways including electrical stimulation of parts of the brain. My point here is that said experiences as reported are different than merely being fanciful - they involve altered states often correlated with highly altered emotions, thoughts, and visual and audial perceptions. Depending on where the brain is stimulated or how the altered state is affected different reports of experiences are issued: in one case a life review, in another an out of body experience, etc. It is not necessary to dismiss such accounts to disfavor dualistic supernatural explanations (or non-explanations).
I understand there is no necessary connection between skepticism of the paranormal and atheism and did not claim that. Blackmore did become an atheist, yes, and she also generally became a skeptic of the paranormal. In her case those two perspectives are related, but not in everyone.