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From: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy
Subject: Re:  Weird Science (response)
Message-ID: <672@mmintl.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Sep-85 15:32:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: mmintl.672
Posted: Fri Sep 20 15:32:10 1985
Date-Received: Wed, 25-Sep-85 07:48:34 EDT
References: <45200019@hpfcms.UUCP>
Reply-To: franka@mmintl.UUCP (Frank Adams)
Organization: Multimate International, E. Hartford, CT
Lines: 25

In article <45200019@hpfcms.UUCP> bill@hpfcla.UUCP writes:
>>>>I recall what Stephen Hawking said about his youthful
>>>>experiences with experiments in the paranormal.  He noticed that when
>>>>scientific rigor was enforced there were no successes, but when it is
>>>>was not, the number of successes jumped sharply.  Of course, there are
>>>>always those who will claim that scientific rigor contributes to an
>>>>atmosphere of disbelief in which such phenomena cannot occur.  If that's
>>>>not wishful thinking, I don't know what is.
>
>Maybe not impossible, but very difficult.  I admire Hawking for going against
>the norm, but I fear that his type is very rare.  It is extremely difficult
>for human beings to throw out ALL preconceived notions and the like, and
>evaluate facts based on just those facts.  In fact, since we are raised to
>believe certain things, denying those things for the purpose of unbiased
>analysis would be much akin to denying our very selves.  Very, very few of
>us are able to do that.

This is not directly to the point, but I don't think Hawking is all that
unusual in this respect.  Remember that Newton did experiments in magic.
Lots of reputable and even famous scientists have investigated such things.
There are people who actually believe this is an argument in support of
their existence.

Frank Adams                           ihpn4!philabs!pwa-b!mmintl!franka
Multimate International    52 Oakland Ave North    E. Hartford, CT 06108