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From: mc68020@gilbbs.UUCP (Tom Keller)
Newsgroups: net.philosophy,net.sci
Subject: Re: Contempt prior to Investigation
Message-ID: <92@gilbbs.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 18-Mar-86 15:14:26 EST
Article-I.D.: gilbbs.92
Posted: Tue Mar 18 15:14:26 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Mar-86 04:45:59 EST
References: <435@ccivax.UUCP> <13400007@uiucdcsp> <12239@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <388@unirot.UUCP>
Organization: Gil's Place, Santa Rosa CA
Lines: 57
Xref: watmath net.philosophy:4556 net.sci:623

In article <388@unirot.UUCP>, cjr@unirot.UUCP writes:
> Right on, man. I know just what it's like to be in your shoes. People
> have called me an ignoramus and worse. I have seen the face of God
> and I have spoken to Him, and I have learned vital secrets of the
> universe through these communions. I also know that the things I
> have experienced are real, but I am mocked merely because I cannot prove
> them to the satisfaction of dogmatic Western scientific minds.

   Not quite true.  In the first place, it is you who seem to expend a
great deal of energy trying to convince others that "western dogmatism
and science" is utterly wrong.  You are not mocked because you cannot
prove your claims.  Christians can't prove theirs either.  You are mocked
because you are hostile, negative, irritating and immature.  You are mocked
because you are immenently mock-able.

>  I have
> also heard these people trying to explain these experiences away.
> They say things like "it was an illusion" or "you believed what you
> wanted to believe" or "you didn't analyze it objectively enough" or
> "you must have been on drugs" (I get that one a lot!) What a load of
> crap! It sure sounds to me like they're just throwing the covers over
> experiences like ours because they don't want to hear them. I can't take
> any of their explanations seriously. Can you?
> 

   Of course, given your level of hostility and immaturity, we should just
automatically assume that you are correct, and that you are telling the
truth, right?  People *NEVER* lie, or mis-inform.  People never make mistakes.
People never misinterpret various events.  Naturally, **YOU** are the 
repository for *TRUTH*.

   For myself, I don't know whether the "mystical" things to which you refer 
are or are not real.  I am willing to accept that they are possible, as I
also have had certain experiences that I can only typify as "para-normal"
in terms of contemporary science.  But until I see rational, consistent
and intellectually sound evidence, I refuse to accept such things from you,
or anyone else, on blind faith.  You have offered no explanation or evidence
which is compelling enough to ignore the "rational" explanations of which
you complain so bitterly.

> I don't think your belief in your experiences being real is any sillier
> than mine.

   Nor do I.  Your belief is not silly.  Your behaviour toward others, and
toward the beliefs of others, *IS* silly.
> Peace,
> 	CJ
-- 

====================================

Disclaimer:  I hereby disclaim any and all responsibility for disclaimers.

tom keller
{ihnp4, dual}!ptsfa!gilbbs!mc68020

(* we may not be big, but we're small! *)