On 11/27/09 17:18, somebody wrote:
>>> Newton, they laughed at Einstein..." doesn't work. There are millions of
>>> "Bozo the Clowns" for each Newton or Einstein.
>
>> The statement is irrelevant, unless you have a criterion for
>> differentiating future Bozos from future Einsteins.
>
> Exactly. Lacking evidence one way or the other, odds are, the person making
> extraordinary predictions is a Bozo.

	Except that evidence wasn't lacking.

> In other words, odds are, all paranormal claims are nonsense.

	Again, it seems you're merely defining "nonsense" to your tastes.

 > To even
 > *begin* investigating, there has to be some extraordinary supporting
 > evidence.

	Nope. To *confirm* it you need extraordinary evidence. To *begin* 
investigating it you need very little.

>>>>> built right on a diamond mine worth a "billions and billions" of
>>> dollars,
>>>>> which nobody knows about. Should I start digging?
>
>>>> You've set up a strawman.
>
>>> How so?
>
>> Your diamond mine scenario is not even close to analogous with the one
>> we're talking about.
>
> Again, how so?

	Because no one came to you stating that they had dug a little and found 
reason to believe there is a diamond mine there. No one came to you with 
a story about how 200 years ago, someone found a diamond there, or found 
clues indicative of diamonds.

	The only way your analogy is valid is if suddenly some researchers 
decided to suddenly do research on psychokinetic activity without even 
knowing that some people claim it exists.

> My argument (not feeling) is, there is a finite set of confirmed truths at
> any finite time, but potentially uncountably many falsehoods. Unless there's
> good evidence *before* we start, we cannot simply waste time investigating
> anything and everything. The onus is on who deem paranormal investigation is

	Except no one suggested studying "anything and everything".

> worthy to show that the paranormal claim in question is somehow different
> than all these falsehoods.

	Actually, no - unless you clarify what you mean by "all these 
falsehoods" - keeping in mind that a number of these had not been 
determined to be falsehoods.
	
> I am sure you get hundereds of Nigerian mail scams a month. Do you
> investigate any one of them? Maybe one of them is not a scam and is the real
> deal, could it be not?

	It sure could be. Your point? I don't pursue them, because that's not 
my area of interest. It's not exactly an academic activity, and if I 
were to dig deep and find that some are legitimate emails, humanity has 
gained nothing. Sure, I may get rich, but I didn't realize this whole 
discussion was oriented towards /personal/ gain.

-- 
Q: What do you call a half-dozen Indians with Asian flu?
A: Six sick Sikhs (sic).

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