X-Message-Number: 20122
From: "Mark Plus" <>
Subject: "False X" doesn't necessarily imply nonempty "True X."
Date: Fri, 20 Sep 2002 11:42:05 -0700

In Message #20110,  writes:

>LaTorra<<What this all comes down to, in my opinion, is that mystical
experiences can be induced technologically. While this does not disprove the 
independent existence of a deity (that's a different philosophical problem), 
it brings into question millennia of reports from "god-experiencers" about 
what they were "told" to  reveal to the rest of us.>>

>d:  do synthetic rubies bring into question the existence of "natural" 
>rubies?

Bad analogy. No one disputes the existence of rubies.

A few years ago one of those psychic telephone scams advertised that it had 
"real psychics." Don't be taken in by those impostors working for the 
competition!

Of course, if no one can demonstrate "psychic" powers under scientically 
controlled conditions, the set of "real psychics" can be meaningly defined 
in reference to the set of "false psychics." The set just happens to be 
empty, as far as modern science can tell.

I happen to find all this talk of "mystical" & "spiritual" experiences 
baffling. I have no clue what such people are mouthing off about.

Mark Plus
It's not "religious" or "science fictional" if you can do it.

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