John Freestone, thanks for your detailed posts and discussions.
First of all, I have browsed a little and found the entry of Christopher Columbus at Wikipedia:
Christopher Columbus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The article clearly states that the Earth at his time was believed to be round by most scholars and most of them were able to correctly calculate the diameter (well, roughly). In fact, Columbus got it wrong, possibly because of his inexperience with navigation. Thanks, I learned something new!
Quote:
Originally Posted by John Freestone  However, to all the pro-IMers I just want to say that I understand, it's my stuff as a sceptic that I want more serious studies and hard evidence (I can't speak for Alegro or others of course).[...]
I don't know whether you'd agree with that Alegro. We happen to be sticklers for rational explanations and evidence for things, especially if they're making supernatural claims about the way the universe works. |
Actually, I agree with this. Maybe I am not as eloquent in formulating my position as you are, but what you write makes a lot of sense to me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by John Freestone I did find it slightly irritating at the James Randi Educational Foundation forums that as soon as anyone said anything that didn't fit perfectly with hard physical science, even questioningly, tentatively, a bunch of guys started shouting "PROVE IT!" or "SO WHAT ARE YOU SAYING YOU BELIEVE IN?". Like hey, I'm just chewing things over, man... |
Actually, I can understand this position as well. If you're sceptic and you have some standards for what will convince you and what will not, you will tend to get irritated if you are assaulted over and over again by people who a) don't know what these standards are, b) don't care to find out, and c) believe you are ignorant, because *they* didn't bother to provide evidence meeting those standards.
[Mind-body-connection]
So, it is always interesting to find something new. But I thought things like the Placebo-effect or the Hawthorne effect were known for ages already. Maybe the application posted here is quite new, however.