Idea for an RRS show: psychic/paranormal phenomena
Offline Hey all, hope this is the right place for this (if it's not I won't accuse you of deleting it!) but I wanted to suggest that the RRS take on psychic/paranormal claims in some future episode. I was watching the "sci"-fi channel (which is 99.999% fi and perhaps 00.001% "sci" as a general rule) and there were all these bullshit shows about faith healers, alien visitors, and hauntings. I've talked to a number of generally very sane, level-headed people who have claimed to have experienced paranormal phenomena: one woman said she'd lived in a "haunted" house back east; a man I once worked with said he'd seen an apparition, etc. Point is: there are SHITLOADS of these claims proliferating all over the place, from historic sites and obscure, out-of-the-way places and now, all over the internet. TV specials have PROFESSIONAL GHOST HUNTERS on them for chrissakes! So-called "mediums" con ridiculous numbers of the gullible into thinking that they ACTUALLY have "spirits" of long-dead people that talk to them. Now, I'm convinced that all of these phenomena have rational, logical explanations but I thought it'd be cool to see the RRS take them on.
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This is a fine forum for it. Not sure if you've noticed the Irrational Precepts contain an entry on this specifically stating:
6. Belief in psychics/paranormal/supernatural claims
We intend on doing an entire trademark episode for it at some point. There might be small doses of it on certain shows, however what we would like to do is cover as much of the topic as possible, cogently, and in one show. Normally our shows our somewhat off the top of the head, and the shows that cover an Irrational Precept are abundantly more important. Eventually the Irrational Precept shows will all be free, and will serve as a testimony to why we make the claim that "x" is irrational. We expect those particular batches of shows to have our highest listenership, so needless to say, we want to cover the issue as thorough as possible. This requires scripting and outlining as much of the issue as possible, so we make sure not to miss anything.
Bringing someone like James Randi or maybe Penn Jillette on that particular show to help us would be great. We're already setting the bar high by including Richard Carrier in our "Theism is irrational" show (number one on the precept list).
If you would like to play an intricate role in the conception of that particular show, that would be great. I know how great you are at writing, and how lengthy you can script something (
@Rev Oglethorpe). Scripting this show is really what is needed to put it out... time that the three of us don't have right now.
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I think this is an even more difficult conversation than Theism, considering it's a concept of the philosophy of mind - which we still don't understand even in the deepest neuroscience fields.
"Character is higher than intellect... A great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Maybe Atheist_Scathe or you
could form a good question for Sam Harris about the issue and we could replay it in the precept show.
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Eh i'll try and formulate a question. It might be unrelated to what I just said - but I have something to ask.
"Character is higher than intellect... A great soul will be strong to live, as well as to think."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
Hey awesome, thanks Sapient! Yeah, anything I can do you know I'm game. I'm in anthro so I've been exposed to some interesting stuff in this vein. There's an excellent video from John Stossel called "The Power of Belief" that talks about the subject quite well.