(June 24, 2013 at 2:36 pm)fr0d0 Wrote:(June 24, 2013 at 12:58 pm)Stimbo Wrote: That's the whole point (it also shows the importance of having a control, by the way). When the supposed phenomenon you are attempting to measure has more than one causative agency, how can you possibly ascribe it to a single one as you had been doing? Further, if the results are indistinguishable from chance alone, what does that tell you? Be honest now.
You have no way of knowing which was the cause. So you cannot conclude that one isn't. If you could tell which were the supernatural effect, that effect wouldn't be supernatural now would it?
We have a winner, folks! Give it up for the little lady!
If you're still having trouble following my admittedly mildly deprecating tone here, remember which of us is claiming that all prayers are answered by his/her pet god. Now feed that into your above-quoted post.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
