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ktesibios
SFN Regular
USA
505 Posts |
 Posted - 08/29/2008 : 16:36:58 [Permalink]
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Invoking quantum mechanics is the last resort of a deluded woowoo. It's always just a matter of time before a denier of the existence of objective reality trots that one out.
BTW, "malevolently evil snowmobile" would be a good name for a rock band. |
"The Republican agenda is to turn the United States into a third-world shithole." -P.Z.Myers |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 08/29/2008 : 16:52:45 [Permalink]
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Starting to get the feeling that gary'tard is just trolling here.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/29/2008 : 16:55:04 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Gary 7.1
Obviously not synonyms! You can pretend mind control doesn't exist, but it's a lot harder to deny the existence of ignorance.
People tend to believe ignorance is our natural state due to the slowness of our evolution - like we just quit swinging from trees a few seconds ago according to Darwin. With a little mind control on top of Darwin's own unhelpful input, human evolution at a gentle snail's pace can come to a complete stop.
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Huh? Didn't I state in a previous post that mind control certainly exists, notably in religions? I do believe I did....
As for ignorance, by definition it cannot fail to exist because everyone is ignorant of something. You are confusing ignorance with stupidity, which is also quite common.
The fossil record tells us that human evolution has been rattling along at a smart pace, as our probable common ancestor with the apes is only some 7 million years old, give or take a mil.
Where do you get these ideas, anyway?
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Gary 7.1
Skeptic Friend
51 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2008 : 01:59:46 [Permalink]
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Skepticism is not always a bad thing, but can be pushed too far, just like some beliefs can lead to mania.
Here's a link to Brianstalin's work.
http://brianstalin-reincarnationdilemmas.blogspot.com/
Skepticism is more welcome than derision and abuse.
Logic dictates it's just a lot of BS, but logic has it's limitations.
Remember - this stuff can't be disproved - not even logic has the power to do that. |
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Gary 7.1
Skeptic Friend
51 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2008 : 02:01:30 [Permalink]
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| Brianstalin, himself, keeps an open mind - he just accesses the information and leaves it at that. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2008 : 03:26:00 [Permalink]
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Of course it can't be disproved -- no religious/superstitious belief can. Nor can any be proven. Illogic in the face of, well, nothing really, is not unique to the modern world.
That's an interesting article on Brianstalin. I'd never heard of him, so I ran a google on him. Evidently, as well as being a Reiki Master, he keeps a series of Past Life Notebooks. There seem to be over a dozen of them. It is not clear where he garners his information to fill these, or perhaps I missed something.
"Reiki (pronounced ray-key) is a form of healing through manipulation of ki, the Japanese version of chi. Rei means spirit in Japanese, so reiki literally means spirit life force.
Like their counterparts in traditional Chinese medicine who use acupuncture, as well as their counterparts in the West who use therapeutic touch (TT), the practitioners of reiki believe that health and disease are a matter of the life force being disrupted. Each believes that the universe is full of energy which cannot be detected by any scientific instruments but which can be felt and manipulated by special people who learn the tricks of the trade. Reiki healers differ from acupuncturists in that they do not try to unblock a person's ki, but to channel the ki of the universe so that the person heals. The channeling is done with the hands, and, like TT no physical massaging is necessary since ki flows through the body of the healer into the patient via the air. The reiki master claims to be able to draw upon the energy of the universe and increase his or her own energy while performing a healing. Reiki healers claim to channel ki into "diseased" individuals for "rebalancing." Larry Arnold and Sandra Nevins claim in The Reiki Handbook (1992) that reiki is useful for treating brain damage, cancer, diabetes and venereal diseases. If the healing fails, however, it is because the patient is resisting the healing energy."
It doesn't get much more woo than that! The kicker is the next paragraph -- all is for sale at discount prices:
"Reiki is very popular among New Age spiritualists, who are very fond of "attunements," "harmonies," and "balances." Reiki apprentice healers used to pay up to $10,000 to their masters to become masters themselves. The price has come down and, according to one correspondent, "prices for first level are around $100, second level $150-300 and master around $600-800." The process involves going through several levels of attunement. One must learn which symbols to use, when to call up the universal life force, how to heal an emotional or spiritual illness, and how to heal someone who isn't present."
Actually, Brianstalin lost me with his claim that the Illuminati was running the national media. The national media is too stupid to be part of the Illuminati, even if it did still exist beyond a scattering of New Age wannabes.
Reincarnation.... I'd like to come back as a cockroach. I might not be popular, but I'd be on the evolutionary, winning team.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26024 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2008 : 19:24:47 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Gary 7.1
Logic dictates it's just a lot of BS, but logic has it's limitations. |
Logic is nothing more than a bunch of human definitions, Gary. You can change them at will, apparently, and so for you, logic cannot "dictate" anything.| Remember - this stuff can't be disproved - not even logic has the power to do that. |
"Gary is an evil snowmobile" can't be disproved, either. Should we really give it any credence whatsoever just because it can't be disproved? If the answer is "yes," it means we must also give credence to the idea that anyone who makes claims regarding enlightenment is just making stuff up. Can't disprove that, after all. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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superbu
New Member
USA
1 Post |
Posted - 08/06/2013 : 01:08:33 [Permalink]
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| I went looking online for skeptical threads about Kevin Ryerson, and this was all I found. This thread is old, but it seems like the perfect place to mention that Sachi Parker, Shirley MacLaine's daughter, says in her recent book about her life that she and her then-boyfriend witnessed Kevin Ryerson pull a hoax on her mother. Apparently MacLaine had lost a diamond-encrusted gold watch, and had called Ryerson over to her house (a frequent occurrence, apparently) for a reading. She asked the entity Ryerson was channeling, "Obadiah," what had happened to her watch -- she'd looked everywhere for it. Obadiah said, "That's too bad. We'll have to do something about that." After the session, while MacLaine was out of the room, Sachi says she and her boyfriend both witnessed Ryerson secretly (he thought) remove the missing watch from his pocket and set it on the kitchen counter. MacLaine returned to the kitchen and was ecstatic that Obadiah had "found" her watch for her. Clearly, Ryerson had STOLEN the watch on a previous visit, knowing she would ask one of his "spirits" where it was located, thereby deepening MacLaine's belief in him. Sachi said they decided not to tell MacLaine about the incident because the knew she was too entrenched in the whole thing to believe them anyway. |
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Shirley Maclaine & Kevin Ryerson
