Voodoo

Shiny_metal_ass said:

That I agree with.

OK, everybody can pick their jaws up off the floor.

This may not be the best example, but it's the best I can come up with right now. Take the example of monks who can wrap themselves in wet sheets, on a mountain in winter, and actually dry the sheets with their bodies by controlling their metabolism. Is that incredible? Hell, yeah! Is is "magic" or "supernatural"? No.

That example of supposedly mystical power can be repeated under controlled conditions, and therefore is subject to scientific inquiry. Herein lies my disdain for religion and mysticism in general. Science does not require worship, offerings or prayer. Science looks at something it cannot understand and attempts to understand it. Religion further mystifies it and makes it "Sacred", so that further inquiry is considered blasphemous in the extreme, and generally discouraged in general.

My mystical experience?

A man who I had never met before, or since, described in extreme and precise detail a ring I had lost several years before. He claimed to be a "seer", meaning he could see objects, and a very small area around it. He described to me finding a wedding ring for a nurse at a hospital he worked at, who had lost it while at work. He was the father of a friend of a friend, that we drove 3 hours on a whim to go see, so there is 0% chance that this person knew anything about me or the ring, nor had my friend or his friend ever seen or heard about the ring. I have no explanation for this, but I believe that someday, even these seemingly incredible instances will be explained through study. Science has proven over and over again that it works. Religion, notsomuch...

Shiny_metal_ass said:

That I agree with.

OK, everybody can pick their jaws up off the floor.

This may not be the best example, but it's the best I can come up with right now. Take the example of monks who can wrap themselves in wet sheets, on a mountain in winter, and actually dry the sheets with their bodies by controlling their metabolism. Is that incredible? Hell, yeah! Is is "magic" or "supernatural"? No.

That example of supposedly mystical power can be repeated under controlled conditions, and therefore is subject to scientific inquiry. Herein lies my disdain for religion and mysticism in general. Science does not require worship, offerings or prayer. Science looks at something it cannot understand and attempts to understand it. Religion further mystifies it and makes it "Sacred", so that further inquiry is considered blasphemous in the extreme, and generally discouraged in general.

My mystical experience?

A man who I had never met before, or since, described in extreme and precise detail a ring I had lost several years before. He claimed to be a "seer", meaning he could see objects, and a very small area around it. He described to me finding a wedding ring for a nurse at a hospital he worked at, who had lost it while at work. He was the father of a friend of a friend, that we drove 3 hours on a whim to go see, so there is 0% chance that this person knew anything about me or the ring, nor had my friend or his friend ever seen or heard about the ring. I have no explanation for this, but I believe that someday, even these seemingly incredible instances will be explained through study. Science has proven over and over again that it works. Religion, notsomuch...