Skeptics might be jumping to conclusions

[polymath257]

All that means is that we should base our ideas on the best available evidence at any point in time. And the best available evidence is that we are biological machines and that paranormal phenomena are not real.

This is NOT just my skeptical position. It is a position taken by looking at the available evidence and seeing where it points. If you want to suggest an alternative position, just present the evidence.

You THINK the evidence points towards us being biological machines.  But just because you think something is true does not make it true.  Also, just because you have dedicated your life to some area of research and have become convinced this area of research speaks the truth does not make it so either.  People fall into this sort of trap all the time.  They are brought up in a certain way and are taught certain things that they think are true.  But said things could be false.  I could say the same thing in regards to the paranormal researchers as well.  Just because they believe certain things does not make them true. 

Therefore, I cannot trust anybody.  I cannot trust humanity and the things they claim are true.  I trust neither the skeptics nor the paranormal researchers.  Thus, I am left in an undecided position where I just don't know the answer one way or the other and nothing anybody says will ever convince me one way or the other.  I would have to take that full, long journey I mentioned earlier.  But, like I said before, I have no interest in researching these sorts of things.  Therefore, I can only hope that the eternal blissful afterlife of my dreams awaits me after I die.  These paranormal researchers claim that we are eternal, blissful souls, that they have the evidence for this, and I can only hope this is true.

And that is precisely why we have the scientific method. When one person makes a proposal, another can challenge it. Together they decide on a test to decide the controversy and then *do* the test.

You see, science has a dispute resolution procedure. And, in the end, the observations are what determine truth. It really is that simple.

So, if someone claims to have evidence for a paranormal, ask for a test. More precisely, ask for a test that will *fail* if there is no paranormal. And then do the test.

Yes, I think the evidence points to us being biological machines. ALL the evidence points in that direction. If you have evidence pointing in another direction, please present it and we can determine how good it is compared to the evidence pointing the other way.

Yes, there is such a thing as confirmation bias. That is why we try to show our ideas to be *wrong*. We try to *break* the ideas, repeatedly and with as much force as we can. If they hold up, they are more likely to be true. And that is why they can be trusted: they have been challenged repeatedly and found to be solid.

Anything *not* repeatedly challenged and shown to work is discarded. Justifiably. And that includes claims of the paranormal.