It doesn't matter if I have faith in gravity, or not.
Nor does it matter if I believe in gravity, or not.
My gravitational and inertial mass, (which are identical most of the time), cannot, so far as I know, be altered by any belief I may, or may not, hold.
Or, as I once saw it put most succinctly, "Gravity doesn't give a shit whether you believe in it or not."
TM "levitation" notwithstanding. *
(The still photos were interesting, but when I finally saw actual video, I almost fell out of my chair laughing!)
It's called "hopping"!
Though I must admit seeing it done in lotus position adds a certain piquancy. And, my dear TMers, I don't care how it feels to you, it isn't levitation. I can tell just by looking that any changes (acceleration) of your inertial mass are the result of muscular contractions. (But we could put you on a certified scale, just to double check.)
I don't have faith in science, it's not a question of belief, it's a question of looking at the world, as it is, and determining what actually happens, and why. (Ok, yes, that is my control belief if you're going to get all logically and philosophically technical on me.)
I do make one leap of faith, in that I do accept as fact that there is a real world, and other minds, "out there". That I am not a "Brain in a Vat", even though this means that I can only know the world as it is presented to me through my senses, which impose their own limitations on what I can know directly.
(I don't regard this as an unreasonable assumption as I can't quite see the point behind the classic Brain in a Vat, since, (at least according to certain philosophers), the experimenter cannot, by definition, have any idea what the Brain in a Vat is actually experiencing. So what the hell would be the point?)
To which you could say "Qualia be damned!"
And my reply to that would be "You're so full of POOP your eyes are brown!"
Oops, sorry. Didn't mean to stoop to insult there.
Anyway, you New Agers, People of Faith, etc, complain that science dismisses the psychic, spiritual, supernatural, etc out of hand, and, in fact, won't even admit the possibility of the supernatural, psi, spiritual, etc etc, while you at the same time claim that these "forces" can, and do, affect things in the material world, such as our wants and desires, who survives the plane crash, i.e. "It was a miracle I survived! God must have saved me!" and so on. (I always think, "And just what made you worthy of saving? Versus everyone else involved, who had the misfortune to DIE.")
Well, you can't have it both ways.
If it can affect material things, it can be measured.
All you need to do is propose a hypothesis of exactly how these immaterial forces interact with and alter the behavior of the material world, and then we can test it!
Again, if it can interact with material things, then we should be able to measure it!
Nor does it matter if I believe in gravity, or not.
My gravitational and inertial mass, (which are identical most of the time), cannot, so far as I know, be altered by any belief I may, or may not, hold.
Or, as I once saw it put most succinctly, "Gravity doesn't give a shit whether you believe in it or not."
TM "levitation" notwithstanding. *
(The still photos were interesting, but when I finally saw actual video, I almost fell out of my chair laughing!)
It's called "hopping"!
Though I must admit seeing it done in lotus position adds a certain piquancy. And, my dear TMers, I don't care how it feels to you, it isn't levitation. I can tell just by looking that any changes (acceleration) of your inertial mass are the result of muscular contractions. (But we could put you on a certified scale, just to double check.)
I don't have faith in science, it's not a question of belief, it's a question of looking at the world, as it is, and determining what actually happens, and why. (Ok, yes, that is my control belief if you're going to get all logically and philosophically technical on me.)
I do make one leap of faith, in that I do accept as fact that there is a real world, and other minds, "out there". That I am not a "Brain in a Vat", even though this means that I can only know the world as it is presented to me through my senses, which impose their own limitations on what I can know directly.
(I don't regard this as an unreasonable assumption as I can't quite see the point behind the classic Brain in a Vat, since, (at least according to certain philosophers), the experimenter cannot, by definition, have any idea what the Brain in a Vat is actually experiencing. So what the hell would be the point?)
To which you could say "Qualia be damned!"
And my reply to that would be "You're so full of POOP your eyes are brown!"
Oops, sorry. Didn't mean to stoop to insult there.
Anyway, you New Agers, People of Faith, etc, complain that science dismisses the psychic, spiritual, supernatural, etc out of hand, and, in fact, won't even admit the possibility of the supernatural, psi, spiritual, etc etc, while you at the same time claim that these "forces" can, and do, affect things in the material world, such as our wants and desires, who survives the plane crash, i.e. "It was a miracle I survived! God must have saved me!" and so on. (I always think, "And just what made you worthy of saving? Versus everyone else involved, who had the misfortune to DIE.")
Well, you can't have it both ways.
If it can affect material things, it can be measured.
All you need to do is propose a hypothesis of exactly how these immaterial forces interact with and alter the behavior of the material world, and then we can test it!
Again, if it can interact with material things, then we should be able to measure it!
There should be energy, plus or minus, that can't be accounted for with current theory!
Unless, of course, these forces don't want to be measured?
But then this is yet another interesting hypothesis, granting will and agency to immaterial forces.
C'mon guys! There is a LOT of money available out there for ANYONE who can demonstrate that these forces actually exist! Design an experiment! Account for your dependent and independent variable! Collect actual data! Publish your methods and results! If it is really there, and your experiment detects it, it should be a REPRODUCIBLE result! ANYONE using your methods should be able to reproduce your results! (with statistical significance.)
Get on the stick!
Oh. And, to the best of my knowledge, simple gravitational masses, like, say, rocks, have no beliefs whatsoever, yet they always have, and will continue to, fall DOWN.
*If the laws of physics hold, (and so far no one has presented evidence that they don't under the conditions in which we find ourselves), it MUST require the same expenditure of energy to lift a certain mass a certain distance in a certain time in a gravitational field, whether the lifting is done via physical contact and muscular force, or MENTAL (Psychic) force. So if you're mathematically inclined, (as I am not), figure out how much energy it would take to lift a 100 kilo load 1 meter in one second, and compare it to the known energy consumption of the average brain.
I get tired just thinking about it.
Unless, of course, these forces don't want to be measured?
But then this is yet another interesting hypothesis, granting will and agency to immaterial forces.
C'mon guys! There is a LOT of money available out there for ANYONE who can demonstrate that these forces actually exist! Design an experiment! Account for your dependent and independent variable! Collect actual data! Publish your methods and results! If it is really there, and your experiment detects it, it should be a REPRODUCIBLE result! ANYONE using your methods should be able to reproduce your results! (with statistical significance.)
Get on the stick!
Oh. And, to the best of my knowledge, simple gravitational masses, like, say, rocks, have no beliefs whatsoever, yet they always have, and will continue to, fall DOWN.
*If the laws of physics hold, (and so far no one has presented evidence that they don't under the conditions in which we find ourselves), it MUST require the same expenditure of energy to lift a certain mass a certain distance in a certain time in a gravitational field, whether the lifting is done via physical contact and muscular force, or MENTAL (Psychic) force. So if you're mathematically inclined, (as I am not), figure out how much energy it would take to lift a 100 kilo load 1 meter in one second, and compare it to the known energy consumption of the average brain.
I get tired just thinking about it.
