Talking with Psychics

[Eilonnwy]

My sister is an intelligent person, she's a marine engineer so she's more successful than I am. She's 26, but apparently this is a belief she's been nurturing since she was 16. Had she talked to me about this 9 months ago I would have agreed with her, so I'm even new to the psychic skepticism. My intention is not to make her stop believing but properly explain why I don't believe without coming across in the wrong way.

But thanks guys, this helps. My fellow atheist and skeptic from Boston Atheists is going to give me a cold reading to demonstrate how it's done. He says he's really good at it.

[allan175]

To be honest, if she believes the cards are helping guide her then I expect what is happening is that they are acting as a focus on making her think about the things she feels she needs guidiance for.

[Eilonnwy]

To be honest, if she believes the cards are helping guide her then I expect what is happening is that they are acting as a focus on making her think about the things she feels she needs guidiance for.

I can agree with that, which is why I think her doing this is not very harmful as opposed to other things I am skeptical about.

[josef rosenkranz]

Adrian Hi.
I understand that the forum is open to all kinds of discussions related mainly to problems of atheism.But this topic about psychics seems to me totally disconnected from the forum.Are we a shrink forum or what?

[Tiberius]

I've moved it to off topic. I agree, it's not really to do with discussion of atheism.

[allan175]

I don't know, I see it as all part of the same thing. A belief in some unprovable thing.

[Edwardo Piet]

Yes but atheism is specifically about absence of belief in God...so atheism tends to (its not actually part of the definition though) be opposed to theists and religion in general....

You can still believe in psychics and be an atheist...

To be an atheist you just have to not believe in God, nothing more, nothing less - by definition.

EvF