Are all mediums con artists then?

[Rasmus]

I might be hated and despised, even amongst some non-skeptics. But I'm not trying to win a popularity contest here.

obviously not, no.

I'm trying to do what is right. If just one person reads my contributions and thinks, "well he's really passionate about these issues, maybe there is a grain of truth in what he says. Maybe what the skeptics say is not so straightforwardly obvious after all".

Ypou appear to be under the mistaken impression that passion is a substitute for reason. Let me assure you that even if oyu'd find one lonely soul that would agree with you, you wouldn't have gained anything.

If it raises a question of doubt regarding the skeptical/materialist Weltanschauung, then that is surely to be desired.

It is to be desired to be successful with an intellectually dishonest approach to the discussion?

Why do you seek to be successful with such an irrational approach on a board full of sc/keptics and rationalists of all places? (Not that it matters where you chose to do this, but I still find your choice interesting.)

This requires careful dispassionate rational argumentation. But passion is also an important element.

Please explain to me how passion can play an important role in a dispassionate discourse?

And how come that you seem to be utterly unwilling to follow your own advise? You post nothing that is reasonable and everything that is passionable? Why?

Rasmus.

 

[blutoski]

Translation: "You haven't asked me to provide evidence in support of my outrageous claims yet."

In my defense, I'm trying to get the claims specific enough to know what evidence would even look like.

 

[NeilC]

Yes that would be nice - I've lose track of what is actually being argued here entirely.

 

[NeilC]

Out of interest Ian, do you believe that homeopathy works and works in the way homeopaths claim? Do you believe you can diagnose illnesses using Iridology? Do you believe the body is mapped out on people's feet as Reflexologists claim?

The reason I ask is to find out whether you yourself might be described as a skeptic by others.,

 

[Complexity]

Good idea! Are you looking forward to when it's finished so you can read it?

Oh, Ian - you silly, old dear!

I'll never visit your site. I have a life.

I'd just like you to go away for a while.

One can only take so much silliness, and several others are behaving badly. I'm afraid you've reached your quota for the day.

Go putter around on your site, happy at the the thought of how horrified we skeptics will be when we learn you've thoroughly trounced us.

 

[CFLarsen]

Good idea! Are you looking forward to when it's finished so you can read it?

Ian, for crying out loud: You have been working on that website for years now.

Will it ever be finished?

 

[Mojo]

Out of interest Ian, do you believe that homeopathy works and works in the way homeopaths claim? Do you believe you can diagnose illnesses using Iridology? Do you believe the body is mapped out on people's feet as Reflexologists claim?

The reason I ask is to find out whether you yourself might be described as a skeptic by others.

To evaluate whether Ian is sceptical with regard to these, of course, we would also need to know why he believes or doesn't believe in these therapies. If he believes they work because he's seen conclusive evidence, he can be regarded as a sceptic (although I would, of course, be pretty interested in knowing where he'd found the evidence and seeing it for myself!). Conversely, if he doesn't believe they work simply because some authority figure has told him they don't, or because he once heard of someone's cat that was treated with homoeopathy and still died, then that is not a sceptical position.

By the way, the only reason I've spelt "sceptic" with a "c" instead of a "k" in this post is that that is the British spelling of the word. It has nothing to do with Ian's habit of typing it as "sKeptic".

 

[Interesting Ian]

In my defense, I'm trying to get the claims specific enough to know what evidence would even look like.

What exactly do you mean by a claim? I've certainly made no assertions about anything. That's more in the habit of my opponents. Are beliefs a claim?

What exactly are we talking about here. If I know I can let you know why I believe in it.

 

[Interesting Ian]

Which will come first, the completetion of this website or the heat death of the universe?

It's a pain doing it. It'll take a long time I'm afraid. The amount I intend to write keeps going up and up and up. 25,000 -- 30,000 words now! And I won't be writing anything about the paranormal.

 

[Interesting Ian]

Out of interest Ian, do you believe that homeopathy works and works in the way homeopaths claim? Do you believe you can diagnose illnesses using Iridology? Do you believe the body is mapped out on people's feet as Reflexologists claim?

The reason I ask is to find out whether you yourself might be described as a skeptic by others.,

I really have absolutely no idea whether any of these things work. I just don't possess the knowledge to even give an opinion.

 

[Interesting Ian]

Oh, Ian - you silly, old dear!

I'll never visit your site. I have a life.

I assure you that the content will be absolutely nothing like my posts on here. I don't normally expand on what I say on here because people don't seem to grasp what I'm saying anyway and eventually the posts get deleted. But the website will be different. I'm making it as simple as possible and I'm making it as scrupulously fair and balanced as possible (unlike the vast majority of stuff out there on the mind/body problem!)

If you have any interest in what consciousness is, whether we are merely robots etc, but know nothing about this subject, then you will find it well worth reading.

I'd just like you to go away for a while.

I am aware of that. Nevertheless that doesn't alter the fact that it is an excellent idea of yours.

 

[Bodhi Dharma Zen]

A genious working, probably, from his own bedroom. Enjoying the grandiosity if his own thinking (measured by himself, of course!) and despising everyone who tells him he have nothing of importance because... they are idiots...

How many are there in the world?

Ian, if you really want to do this in the right way, study philosophy, REAL (this is academic) Philosophy. Learn to discuss, use the tools to understand why almost everything that you believe in is, how can I say this... less probable than current physicalist views. Please note that IM NOT A PHYSICALIST MYSELF (no Ian, this is true, really, not everybody in here is a "materialist", the world is not black and white). But above all, dont give the world more crap, if you are for real, teach the world to think correctly (this is what you want, in your own words). There are enough Ian's in the world already. You can be better than that.

 

[Complexity]

I assure you that the content will be absolutely nothing like my posts on here. I don't normally expand on what I say on here because people don't seem to grasp what I'm saying anyway and eventually the posts get deleted. But the website will be different. I'm making it as simple as possible and I'm making it as scrupulously fair and balanced as possible (unlike the vast majority of stuff out there on the mind/body problem!)

You certainly don't understand the concepts of marketing and advertising. You should be making some attempt to attract people to your site by your postings and behavior on this forum.

As it is, only a masochistic fool would visit your site for more of the same.

I have no reason to believe that what you will post on your site will be any better, deeper, more informed, or more persuasive that what you post here.

If you have any interest in what consciousness is, whether we are merely robots etc, but know nothing about this subject, then you will find it well worth reading.

I'm tremendously interested in consciousness.

I know quite a bit about the subject. Far more than you do, I fear.

I will never visit your site. I have a life. I want to keep what's left of my mind.

 

[Gr8wight]

What exactly do you mean by a claim? I've certainly made no assertions about anything. That's more in the habit of my opponents. Are beliefs a claim?

What exactly are we talking about here. If I know I can let you know why I believe in it.

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle.


"Goll durn it! I keep losing my bait, and ain't caught but a single fish all day. Cletus, hand me that dynamite."

 

[NeilC]

^^^^^^

So it comes down to the fact that Ian has some beliefs that others don't share?

Is that it?

Why are we still discussing it?

 

[Dcdrac]

That is why i started the Interesting Ian thread so he can sound off there and leave the real discussions alone.

 

[Interesting Ian]

^^^^^^

So it comes down to the fact that Ian has some beliefs that others don't share?

Is that it?

Why are we still discussing it?

I don't know.

 

[delphi_ote]

It's a pain doing it. It'll take a long time I'm afraid. The amount I intend to write keeps going up and up and up. 25,000 -- 30,000 words now! And I won't be writing anything about the paranormal.

So you're going to write 30k words and drop them all at once on the web? That's just what the internet has been missing all these years: pages and pages of text. I'm sure this is going to be the most popular website ever!

 

[Paul C. Anagnostopoulos]

What exactly do you mean by a claim? I've certainly made no assertions about anything. That's more in the habit of my opponents. Are beliefs a claim?

You're a gigantic ass. Here you weasel out of the issue of evidence by saying that your statements are simply beliefs, yet whenever you are challenged you call everyone mind numbingly stupid. We're stupid because we don't agree with your beliefs?

~~ Paul

 

[Interesting Ian]

You're a gigantic ass. Here you weasel out of the issue of evidence by saying that your statements are simply beliefs, yet whenever you are challenged you call everyone mind numbingly stupid. We're stupid because we don't agree with your beliefs?

~~ Paul

No, because you fail to understand anything no matter how simply I put it.