Robin, if we are here to learn, doesn't that mean it is important and good to learn everything we can? Particularly about science, mathematics and logic, - those fields which have forwarded the biggest advances in our human knowledge?
I mean, I actually rather agree with you, though for different reasons. I think we are here to learn, too. Though I tend to think about it more like this. We evolved to have these great big brains, it's a shame not to use them to their fullest capacity.
The sciences let us do that. In science, every new discovery builds on past knowledge. And every new discovery causes even more discoveries. We can say, "well, if X is true, then we ought to be able to do [thing that builds on X] If it works, great, now we know even more about X. If it doesn't work, then we know that our idea of what X is might not be accurate.
For instance:
- 1546 Fracastoro figured out that diseases could be contageous
- 1623 Caspar Bauhin devised method for classifying plants
- 1674 Leeuwenhoek described bacteria and protozoa
- 1717 Thomas Fairchild produced a hybrid by crossing dianthus and carnation
- 1796 Edward Jenner: first smallpox vaccination
- 1819 Shirreff begins series of experiments on hybridization of wheat
- 1881 The first hybrid tomato
- 1892 Iwanowsk discovered viruses
- 1928 Alexander Flemming discovered penicillin
And now, because of all these folks (and many, many steps and people in between) not only are many human diseases no longer life threatening, but now I can even plant in my garden a tomato plant hybrid that is resistant to tobacco mosaic virus, bacterial speck, and fusarium wilt (a virus, a bacterial infection, and a fungus). This is so cool! This is huge!
Because the Mesopotamians invented 0, binary code got figured out in the 1600s, which led to computers getting invented in the 20th century, which led to you and me having this conversation on this forum right now. How friggin cool is that?
What does belief in mediums get us, Robin? If this is knowledge, then what are the if/thens?
Since the Fox sisters first started cracking their toes and pretending there were ghosts back in the 1840s, thousands and thousands of people have sworn that they have the ability to talk to the dead.
In all these thousands of mediums in 200 years, why has no medium ever been able to say.. solve a murder case? Or find a missing person's dead body? Or channel Albert Einstein and explain some complex physics problem? Or talk in a language the medium did not know (but the dead person did)? Or talk to any of our founding fathers and ask them to explain how they felt about certain articles in the constitution? Or say Houdini's secret phrase? Or even just get Gramma's super secret yellow cake recipe?
NO ONE. NOT ONE SINGLE MEDIUM. IN 200 YEARS.
Whenever experiments have been set up that remove the ability for trickery, remove the ability of the medium to "fish" with questions, and remove the confirmation bias and selective attention of the receiver, the amazing medium power simply disintegrates. Vanishes.
That's the difference between knowledge and belief. Knowledge is constantly growing and developing. Knowledge is testable. Knowledge can be built upon. Belief is stagnant. Knowledge leads to more learning. Belief requires you to stop learning. And in this particular case, your belief requires you to intentionally ignore a vast amount of very real and very testable knowledge.
Which is not to say that mediums have no knowledge. They do. The skilled ones have a great amount of very real, very testable knowledge. And anyone can learn this knowledge they have. It requires, though, that you disregard the books they write at the height of their game. Instead, you need to read the same books that they did to get started. These are not in the paranormal section where you like to shop. They are over in the Hobbies and Crafts/ How to Perform Magic Tricks section. And there are more over in the Psychology section. These have titles like "How to Persuade People Who Don't Want to Be Persuaded" and "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" and "The Science of Influence"
Believing in mediums will lead you nowhere. Learning about mediums will gain you actual knowledge. You believing you know how to spot a fake every time really shows just how very little you know.
No one who actually knows a lot about this stuff thinks they can't be fooled.
