Skepticism, cynicism, and science

On this blog I’m still flogging my “In Good Spirit” interview with mediums Marcel and Lenny. Hey, it’s been a long time since I was on a radio program. Okay, this was an Internet program, but that still counts.

My interview starts at about minute three of the archived file and stops at about minute eighteen. We covered quite a bit of ground in that quarter hour.

As I noted in the previous post, when I listened to the recording I was aghast at how often I interjected a “you know.” I was totally unaware at the time that I was doing this. When I mentioned this to Laurel, who heard the interview live on my laptop, she said “I didn’t notice that.”

Interesting. It makes me wonder how much else I, and everyone else, unduly takes for granted about how we see the world. If I’m unaware of some things that I’m saying, how do I know what else I’m blind to?

I also was struck by the fact that I proudly proclaimed myself an agnostic, explaining that this comes from a-gnosis, not knowing. Yet there I was unconsciously throwing in “you know’s” all over the place. Well, at least I wasn’t saying “I know.”

At one point Marcel said that he appreciated the way I expressed my metaphysical skepticism. Cynicism, on the other hand, turns him off. Me too. I explained that skeptics are open-minded. They don’t want truth to come to them secondhand, through a glass darkly.

Cynics are much more negative. I’m fine with a smiling Humbug! But a cynic would growl, Bah, humbug! Big difference.

I was sort of surprised to hear Marcel say that listeners to Achieve Radio (“the positive side of broadcasting”) don’t much like skeptics. I’ve always figured that New Age types are more open-minded than traditional religious believers.

And again, what is skepticism but dedicated open-mindedness? Not clutching onto any old purported truth that happens to meander by, but scanning the horizon in all directions for evidence of the Real Thing.

If you listen to the program, you’ll hear my paean to science and the new physics get interrupted. Probably a wise move by Marcel, since I’m sure he could tell that I was just getting warmed up on the whole quantum connection thing.

It really is amazing that previously paired photons, or other atomic particles, are able to instantly communicate between themselves across any distance, speed of light be damned. I started to point out that this “communication” doesn’t involve any exchange of information, so no faster than light signaling by humans is possible.

Still, whatever the universe is like, deep down, science recognizes that this mysterious foundation of the cosmos is far removed from our current understanding. The quest of physics for a Theory of Everything is stalled, notwithstanding the prodigious efforts of some of the earth’s greatest intellects.

For me, this is the source of a powerful sense of awe. I don’t need religious belief to make me fall on my knees before Whatever the Hell It Is that’s responsible for all this.

As I said on the show, simply contemplating that our universe of about 100 billion galaxies, each with an average of around 100 billion stars, somehow fit within the confines of an atom at the instant of the Big Bang, is mystery enough for me.

Who needs God? That’s just a conception. Evidence for the Big Bang is everywhere. (Countless particles left over from the primal microwave radiation are impacting each of us right now).

Along these lines, sort of, I came across this Thomas Jefferson quote in Richard Dawkin’s “The God Delusion” today.

The priests of the different religious sects…dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight, and scowl on the fatal harbinger announcing the subdivision of the duperies on which they live.

Comments

[Marcel Cairo]

Brian, thank you for your participation on the show and for the level of thought you've put to it afterwards. Your thoughts on the subject matter are refreshing in the same way watermelon is refreshing on a hot summer day. You just can't explain it, but it has something to do witht he texture. I have noticed that your regular commentators have not commented so far on you r In Good Spirit postings. I sure hope Lenny and I haven't made you lose your fan base.

Also, please accept my apologies for the interruptions, but as you already guessed, the show is parapsychology "lite" entertainment, and I thought you might start to channel Carl Sagan or Stephen Hawking (even though he's still living) when I heard the words "photons" and "atoms". We have a strict rule on the show about channeling scientist without a written consent from their parents.

Also, have you ever thought about changing your name to "Bill"? Ever since Lenny and I started calling you that at the end of the interview, it seems to fit.

You're a good egg, Charlie Brown.

[Edward]

In one of Terry Pratchett's marvelous books, there is an observation that witches don't need to develop second sight; they are however talented at first sight, seeing things the way they are.
In another of his books, the narrator points out that being invisible is relatively easy, since many people see things that aren't there, but few see things that really are there.

And here's the thing, children need potatoes, candy and crayons. The science that brought me my cell phone is concrete enough to let me believe that invisible particles share at a distance a communication that is not information, (when even light itself is information).

Alchemy is the foundation of chemistry, astrology is the fundament of astronomy, and the idiocies perpetrated by the RC Church in the Middle Ages were the prototype for modern jurisprudence, (anyone for a debate on the semantics of torture?)

But that doesn't mean we know now. All inventions were not completed at the end of the nineteenth century. If the Big Bang is not as much a conception as God, we are living in so much papier mache.

The personal God is important to human development for the same reason that reading teaches writing. Without pattern analysis and the irrational pursuit of symmetry, there would be no science at all.

[Brian]

Marcel, I suspect that my regular readers, all half dozen or so of them, are still in shock at my attending a psychic reading.

Or, the idea of spending a whole 15 minutes on one Internet site listening to an archived radio program is too daunting for them.

Or, the subject simply isn't of much interest to the churchless congregation.

I didn't mind your interruption at all. If I'd continued on much longer in my photonic vein, you and Lenny would have lost your own half dozen listeners.

I'm one of those bi guys who swings both ways with spirituality and science. I get turned on equally by mysticism and physics, but this sort of passion isn't widely shared.

I just don't feel like a "Bill," so will keep "Brian" for now. You can call me whatever you want, though.

[benandante]

Marcel, Brian, I listened to the beginning of the programme, but my boys became quite loud and the competition for decibels was better left for another day.

What I did hear was interesting and as a matter of fact I bookmarked the program along with SFs "burst of durst" for my later evening forays when the home is quiet and I am still awake (pencil me in for february? lol).

I don't have much else to contribute regarding the interview; Marcel and his co-host are pleasant and intelligent. I am not so arrogant as to believe that I can presume to declare someone else's experiences as real/not real; I usually take people at their word. (oh but how I envy Mr. Randi's supreme certitude!)

Out of what I've read and heard, my reaction resembles Edward's - I am amused that you 'believe' that invisible particles exist (so do I, BTW) and further you believe that they somehow communicate ...but since humans do not share in this form of communication it is *not* communication. Pretty close? (remember, I am not really as gifted as the rest of you at scientific bullsh...er JARGON.)

Again, as a laissez faire spiritualist, I defend your right to your own quaint superstitions and fantasies, even down to those amusing robes you insist on calling lab coats. I actually adore string theory and Hawking's early work is what opened my eyes to occult studies and esoterica.

Just because I see science for what it is, a RELIGION or rather a rigidly controlled set of beliefs and rules commanding absolute obedience or exile (and now with their very own political party right here in the US!! oh, you go give the religious right a run for their money guys...) does not mean I am not able to take something from science. Marcel and other channellers have important and useful things to teach me, too. (My fave is a guy in Florida who channels Lazaris, but that's for another day) Buddhism gave me non-judgement, Christians the value of a poersonal God, the Roman Catholic church a gift for languages and assimillating rituals from diverse sources, etc etc.

At the Old Country Buffet of life, I take a little bit of everything on my plate, even Ankh-Morporkian ale (which probably resembles potatoes, candy and crayons, Edward) to wash it down.

Offler be worshipped!

JH NY

[Edward]

Jeanine, good to see another Disc-worlder out there. Namaste.

Brian, your psychic reading appointment reminded me of your medical reading recently. You report that you approach these events with healthy scepticism, and come away without much conscious life change.
The psychics are probably better at follow up, (knowing the health treadmill system,) but the medical reading is treated as more "serious," confidantial. Would your doctor broadcast, or even narrow-cast, their diagnosis?

And which will influence your psyche, your soul, more? Which reading tempers your behavior and relationship with your family? Does the psychic reading play into your dream images, or choice of reading material?

Look at the clouds, the pattern swallows describe in flight, and take a reading of how your body feels. I would bet you know exactly what a doctor or psychic would say about your presence. But that is because being is participatory, and either reading would only bring surprise with its accuracy, not its inaccuracy.

Having a psychic or medical reading is like eating pickled cactus - you have to wait to see how it sits.

[Dave]

I didn't find the "you knows" irritating at all; you sounded relaxed and were funny. So I'd say you done good!

Going to a spirit medium didn't shock me. In fact, I'd like to see you chalenge your skepticism further, like a friend of mine who went to a Voodoo ceremony and found himself possessed by a spirit known as Ghede. While possessed, according to the testimony of others present, he even spoke Haitian Creole, a language he had never heard before. I'd be curious to hear your reaction to such an experience. There are probably some spirit-possession cults in your own neighborhood, if only of the Pentecostal variety.

[Arlo R. Hansen]

U. S. Anderson wrote in his book "Three Magic Words," he was told at a seance, that the spirit of his Norwiegen uncle was present and awaiting a greeting. So, Mr. Anderson spoke to the "spirit" in its native language.

After an overly long pause a voice replied, "We only speak English here."

Hokum anyone?