Posted on 06/03/2004 9:38:49 AM PDT by BobbyBeeper
Nope. There are plenty of people of good reliability and character who claim to have seen flying saucers and space aliens.
Secondly, there is no positive reason for believing that these phenomena have occurred, while the existence of witchcraft and demonic activity can be demonstrated positively.
Nope. Both are supported by the same sort of anecdotal evidence (and both claims are so extraordinary that this sort of anecdotal evidence simply does not cut the mustard).
It would seem that "category error" is your favorite form of logical fallacy, at least for the moment.
There is a difference between a chosen behavior (all of your examples) and an innate trait (magical aptitude, in the HP universe).
This saint's levitation was witnessed by hundreds of people and a pope.
He was observed to levitate on seventy separate occassions.
The Church didn't promote his gifts. In fact, the Church treated him somewhat harshly:
Unfortunately, there were some among his brethren, who did not believe in these "impossible and incredible" things. Besides, Joseph was not the kind of person to whom such things would happen... rather, he was generally a trouble in the community. Therefore he was an impostor! He was reported to the Vicar General, who believed what was said, Joseph was called to stand his trial before the inquisitors of Naples. In October 1638, he left the convent "La Grottella" and moved to Naples, to the Franciscan Conventual monastery of "San Lorenzo Maggiore". It was rumoured that a saint was living there and a huge crowd of Neapolitans gathered around the monastery. Joseph was afraid to enter the Tribunal of Inquisition, but St.Anthony of Padua appeared to him and encouraged him. He was interrogated, and he also went into ecstacy, remaining suspended in the air.The inquisitors were unable to convict him of anything, so they sent him for further examination to the General Minister of the Order in Rome. He saw Joseph's humility, began to doubt whether all was true that was said against him, and took him to see the Holy Father. In the end, nothing could be proved against Joseph, but the Tribunal of Inquisition decided to keep him in safe custody. He was was sent from one lonely convent to another, and treated with the strictest rigor.
I would suggest that the reviewer, and you, educate yourselves on the subject.
Interesting that parlor tricks like levitation get less common as people get better educated about how they are done. The author of Sherlock Holmes believed in garden fairies on the basis of som double exposed photographs. William James, a scientist of sorts, believed in fortune tellers. Both intelligent people, but it makes no difference. They were fooled.
He supposedly levitated dozens of times, and yet some of the people who knew him best didn't believe it? Not very convincing, I'm afraid.
Sorry, but I won't stipulate this point. If you want to make this assertion, you will have to prove it. Your own biases don't count as evidence.
while the existence of witchcraft and demonic activity can be demonstrated positively.
You keep saying this, but you have yet to demonstrate anything more substantial than the same type of evidence which exists for UFO sightings and alien abductions. Citing yet more anecdotal reports proves nothing.
Again, do you understand the distinction between anecdotal and empirical evidence?
In context, your statement is just another confirmation that this sort of class warfare twaddle goes hand in hand with the elevation of "feelings" above rational thought.
Er, maybe you want to gloss over, not emphasize, the fact that you didn't get around to answering the question of whether invading Europe (which obviously entailed much evil in the form of death and destruction) was justified in order to achieve good (the destruction of the Nazi regime).
Poisoning the well with innacurate comparisons. These wizards aren't the wizards the Bible warns against. By your absurd absolutism then even Gandalf from LOTR is evil, he is a wizard after all. You need to learn about grey, that's what the world is really made of and as long as your world is black and white your conclusions will be false and you will be unable to deal with the real world as an adult. Your blind insistance that HP is evil is a childish narrow minded obsession that does harm to you, your children, and the faith you think to defend.
Was the kid asking the question touching the board? Then the answer is obvious, "it" didn't get any questions right, he did.
I don't know if levitation has gotten less common. It's still pretty standard fair in stage magic and David Blaine used a really solid closeup levitation gimic to basically build his career, Blaine even hams it up as an "exausting" activity like it's a real supernatural power. Now levitation for cheap psychics has probably dropped, but I'd blame that mostly on David Copperfield, he flies over the audience with a rig that cost tens of thousands of dollars, after somebody has seen that they're not going to be impressed by a table six inches off the ground.
The illuminated know that supernatural activity is enabled by the presence of deliberately clandestine teratological molecules moving backwards in plenumary time. Since teratological molecules are dispelled by electric light, that explains why supernatural phenomena are almost nonexistent in the modern world.
The justification for the war isn't an example of the ends justifying the means for the State, but an example of the lesser of two evils --do nothing while innocent people are killed or war against the perpetrators. Warring against the Nazis was the lesser evil.
I'll take that answer as, "no, I have no problem with the poor being disproportionately represented in the armed forces."
Since the poor are NOT disporportionately represented then the question itself is a falsehood. And even if they were, it's a voluteer army, who cares who's in it so long as they act with honor.
Eyewitness accounts are the best empirical evidence of supernatural phenomena since videos and audio tapes would be rejected as fraudulent. Eyewitnesses would always be needed to confirm any mechanical recordings of the events.
I can provide you with plenty of examples of miracles or supernatural phenomena but you will reject them all because of your dogmatic, a priori commitment to materialism. It's logically impossible to present empirical evidence of supernatural phenomena to a dogmatic materialist.
"Eyewitness" accounts are notoriously unreliable, and do not (absent controls, accurate records, reproducibility and independent corroboration) consitute empirical evidence.
It's logically impossible to present empirical evidence of supernatural phenomena to a dogmatic materialist.
First, I am not a materialist, dogmatic or otherwise.
Second, you have yet to offer any empirical evidence.
You want to get people to believe that witchcraft is real? Then provide evidence that is 1) independently corroborated, and 2) reproducible.
When I was a kid, my father used to pull my nose off and let it wiggle between his fingers before placing it back on my face.
I guess you won't believe this either with out video!
Your father was obviously a practitioner of the dark arts. You don't happen to have any unusual birthmarks or tattoos on your head, do you? ;o)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.