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Not to go all “vulgar materialism” here but if there was such a thing i think we would have more than just anecdotes by now. But that’s a bit of a handwavy argument so let’s think about it a bit more logically. Currently we know of no mechanism in the natural laws of the universe that would allow for the existence of such things. However it could be that we simply have yet to discover the elementary physics that make it possible. We always have to admit that we have not yet learned all there is to know about the universe.
But here’s the problem: when evaluating any claim the key is always to first see if it is even falsifiable. Because only a falsifiable claim can be disproved. If there does not exist any method by which you would be able to conclusively show that your hypothesis is false then you are just wasting your time. Note that you don’t need to be able to prove something is true, there are a lot of conjectures in science that are accepted as true because they are consistent with observations and because so far they have not been found to be false though they easily could have, e.g. in mathematics things like the so-called “twin prime conjecture”.
But if by definition the thing you are claiming to exist can never be proved not to exist, like say, if we were to postulate that outside of the boundary of the observable universe space is full of clowns riding tricycles (we have no way of ever proving this is not the case) then why are we even bothering with this idea in the first place? We can gain no insight about the universe thinking about it. It certainly doesn’t help us make the world a better place. The supernatural is by definition “above nature”, so it will always be possible for those who want to believe in it to dismiss any possible test you could devise to make a conclusion one way or the other.
For me this is just one of those questions that is simply an invalid question. I can’t answer it with yes or no, i simply have to reject the premise out of hand and move on with more useful questions. Ghosts won’t liberate the working class, they won’t put fascists in gulags and they won’t build socialism. But so long as your belief in the supernatural doesn’t hurt anyone around you, who am i to spoil your fun?
Not to go all “vulgar materialism” here but if there was such a thing i think we would have more than just anecdotes by now. But that’s a bit of a handwavy argument so let’s think about it a bit more logically. Currently we know of no mechanism in the natural laws of the universe that would allow for the existence of such things. However it could be that we simply have yet to discover the elementary physics that make it possible. We always have to admit that we have not yet learned all there is to know about the universe.
But here’s the problem: when evaluating any claim the key is always to first see if it is even falsifiable. Because only a falsifiable claim can be disproved. If there does not exist any method by which you would be able to conclusively show that your hypothesis is false then you are just wasting your time. Note that you don’t need to be able to prove something is true, there are a lot of conjectures in science that are accepted as true because they are consistent with observations and because so far they have not been found to be false though they easily could have, e.g. in mathematics things like the so-called “twin prime conjecture”.
But if by definition the thing you are claiming to exist can never be proved not to exist, like say, if we were to postulate that outside of the boundary of the observable universe space is full of clowns riding tricycles (we have no way of ever proving this is not the case) then why are we even bothering with this idea in the first place? We can gain no insight about the universe thinking about it. It certainly doesn’t help us make the world a better place. The supernatural is by definition “above nature”, so it will always be possible for those who want to believe in it to dismiss any possible test you could devise to make a conclusion one way or the other.
For me this is just one of those questions that is simply an invalid question. I can’t answer it with yes or no, i simply have to reject the premise out of hand and move on with more useful questions. Ghosts won’t liberate the working class, they won’t put fascists in gulags and they won’t build socialism. But so long as your belief in the supernatural doesn’t hurt anyone around you, who am i to spoil your fun?
I personally have no idea whether it’s real or not or whether I believe it or not, who knows.