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From: rpjday@violet.waterloo.edu (Rob Day)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,sci.misc
Subject: Re: Strange results in Nature article (fallout...)
Keywords: skepticism debunking
Message-ID: <8107@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Date: 3 Aug 88 12:43:59 GMT
References: <1911@aecom.YU.EDU> <6445@megaron.arizona.edu> <492@metapsy.UUCP> <1930@aecom.YU.EDU> <498@metapsy.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@watdragon.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: rpjday@violet.waterloo.edu (Rob Day)
Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario
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In article <498@metapsy.UUCP> sarge@metapsy.UUCP (Sarge Gerbode) writes:
>In article <1930@aecom.YU.EDU> werner@aecom.YU.EDU (Craig Werner) writes:
>>	Actually, Randi's only assumption was that "all known laws of physics
>>are valid."
>
>That's quite an assumption, when one is looking at something that may
>invalidate existing laws of physics.  A prejudice, I would say.  If all
>physicists had such an assumption, there would be no discoveries of new
>laws of physics, no progress in the field of physics.

  Oh, please, your statement has the flavor of a rather well-known proponent
of TM who graced the screens of sci.misc for some time.  His response to
statements that self-levitation violated every known physical law and then
some was that, well, maybe it's time to rewrite Newton's laws.  Sure, for
no other reason than to accommodate someone's wishful thinking.
  If we were to take into consideration that every new and bizarre discovery
could be explained by invalidating existing laws of physics, we'd certainly
have an interesting system of science.  I think you'll have to do better than
accusations of prejudice directed at someone who simply wants to work within
the framework of existing physical laws.  Unless you have some good reasons
to drop this assumption.  And so far, all I've seen are rather nasty,
ill-informed and rather ignorant statements directed at poor Mr. Randi.
Prejudice, indeed.  If this is a sample of metapsychology, I'm not sure
I'm terribly impressed.
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Robert P. J. Day	//	rpjday@violet.waterloo.{edu|cdn}
Dept. of Comp. Sci.	//	rpjday@violet.uwaterloo.ca
University of Waterloo	//	uunet!watmath!violet!rpjday
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