[Dr Laurence Niles]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

Yes you are.

You deflected the original question into one about love. Just like you deflected the question about evidence to one of reality.

Don't kid and kidder, sweety.

ThinksDesign

Good grief, I actually agree with you, you Godless lesbien

I guess a stopped clock is right once a day.

YIC

[Thinks Design]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

I'm not. Maybe you just need to learn to read correctly. Or maybe you are just horrible in interpreting. Who knows?

Yes you are.

You deflected the original question into one about love. Just like you deflected the question about evidence to one of reality.

Don't kid and kidder, sweety.

ThinksDesign

[FreeFromBrains]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

And what you were saying about panic attacks and stuff- YES, for those persons, who feel it, it IS real. They don't say "hey, its just an imagination anyway", but they feel it for real. And you cannot compare that anyway, since such things are mostly based on horrible experiences that people had in their life.

First: feeling you are going to have a heart attack during a panic attack has no bearing on the objective chance of having a heart attack, does it?

Second: Panic attacks are not mostly based on horrible experiences. Please take a look at the wiki entry for Panic attacks.

Do you know the difference between objective and subjective?

[Dr Laurence Niles]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

Okay, then, let's settle this different, since I feel like you all just don't want to understand what I say. Try to prove me with FACTS, that love is real.
And what you were saying about panic attacks and stuff- YES, for those persons, who feel it, it IS real. They don't say "hey, its just an imagination anyway", but they feel it for real. And you cannot compare that anyway, since such things are mostly based on horrible experiences that people had in their life.

Ha.

As an ex psychologist I can field this one.

Love is a category term for a known set of physiological, cognitive and behavioural responses.

These can be measured. Just like any emotion or mood. What do you think the science of psychology is all about? That you cannot explain love does not mean magic is real

It strikes me that the gay boy and the lezzer are asking questions you can't answer so you evade and answer questions with deflecting questions: stay focused, little miss!

YIC

[Maike Lorenzen, nazi witch]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

I'm not. Maybe you just need to learn to read correctly. Or maybe you are just horrible in interpreting. Who knows?

[Thinks Design]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

Okay, then, let's settle this different, since I feel like you all just don't want to understand what I say. Try to prove me with FACTS, that love is real.
And what you were saying about panic attacks and stuff- YES, for those persons, who feel it, it IS real. They don't say "hey, its just an imagination anyway", but they feel it for real. And you cannot compare that anyway, since such things are mostly based on horrible experiences that people had in their life.

Sweety, you just avoiding the question again.

ThinksDesign

[Maike Lorenzen, nazi witch]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

Okay, then, let's settle this different, since I feel like you all just don't want to understand what I say. Try to prove me with FACTS, that love is real.
And what you were saying about panic attacks and stuff- YES, for those persons, who feel it, it IS real. They don't say "hey, its just an imagination anyway", but they feel it for real. And you cannot compare that anyway, since such things are mostly based on horrible experiences that people had in their life.

[FreeFromBrains]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

I wrote everything what was necessary. I'm pretty sure you will find your answer in what I said. But if you want a short answer: Feelings.

So if I told you that I had a feeling that the government were using long range EEGs to filch thoughts from my head, you (with your paradigm of using feelings as evidence) would conclude that my feeling is correct?

What about someone having a panic attack who FEELS that they are going to have a heart attack and die? You (with your paradigm of using feelings as evidence) would conclude they were correct?

What you are basically saying is that if something feels true, it is?

Let's take this to an extreme: our feelings define reality.

Based on this a paedophile is doing nothing wrong because his actions FEEL right to him.

Just how old are you? Do you honestly beleive reality conforms to what people beleive? What if two people beleive two different things?

What is the criterion in use to let you decide whether your feeling is correct or if it just a feeling?

I had a feeling I would fail the Emotion and Thinking module last year. But I passed: so my feeling was wrong.

Are you honestly saying every time you have feeling it is correct?

Seriously?

[Maike Lorenzen, nazi witch]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

I wrote everything what was necessary. I'm pretty sure you will find your answer in what I said. But if you want a short answer: Feelings.

[Thinks Design]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

In fact, this is a good question! But to answer this question is so hard. It's actually more about philosophy than science. To answer, what makes magic real, we would have to answer first: what is reality? How can we measure what is real?

Sweety, when I grade papers the one thing you learn early on is when someone is redefining the question to one they can answer.

When a student has not revised the topic they try to answer another question, just so they can write something.

You are doing that here. Just answer the little tykes question: what standard of evidence do you use?

ThinksDesign

[Maike Lorenzen, nazi witch]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

And I most definitely won't force you to.

By the way, if you really are interested in magic, I recommend to read the book "witchcraft today"

[Redeemed Papist]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

None of what you say comes from Jesus so it is all lies.

1 John 5:10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

You can't get it any clearer than that. We don't need to listen to a word you say.

[Maike Lorenzen, nazi witch]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

In fact, this is a good question! But to answer this question is so hard. It's actually more about philosophy than science. To answer, what makes magic real, we would have to answer first: what is reality? How can we measure what is real? For example, hallucinations can be for certain persons as real as the moon is for us. Sometimes we witness things, which we cannot believe to be real, but they are. Some people, who lost a leg, swear that they still feel the pain in the leg sometimes, even if they know, it's gone. We say this is just stupid, but for them it is reality. So, this is actually not about a proof in a science way, but magic is alot about feelings. If you take drugs, you feel very strange things sometimes and you don't question it, you just know that these feelings are there in that moment and that is all that matters. It's similiar with magic. When that feeling is flowing through your body, you can FEEL it and you know that it is REAL for you. I can feel it, I can sense it and it amazes me everytime again. I don't do all this, because I want to be spooky or powerful, but because it makes me feel stable and strong and I feel one with this world. I think you guys have a wrong idea about Wiccas. We don't summon demons or do some magic like Harry Potter or something. xD We are celebrating the mother nature, the circle of life and we pray to get reborn near our beloved ones in our next life. What we seek is wisdom and love in everything, that surrounds us. BELIEVING is stronger than you think. We create a part of our reality on our own. A bumblebee is actually way to fat to fly. But it doesn't know, so it flies either way. Some people are convinced that they are the best, so they are naturally successfull. If you think, you always have bad luck and your life is the worst, it will be. And when I think that this spells work, they will work for me.

Some people who just want to listen to facts only will find it hard to understand what I say. But even though you might not be satisfied with these words, I feel good as I am and it makes me happy and stable to know, that I am a part of this world and that I can feel the nature and life flowing through my body.

For example, on full moon sometimes we just meet in the middle of the forest and dance and eat together and go crazy and just let ourselves go and those are the moments where I feel free like never before and we don't even need drugs for it. Just being human and let our lowest instincts get the control. Pure freedom.

Gosh, I could write waaay more, but nothing what I say will ever be enough. As I said, you need to feel it to understand what I mean. I hope that gave you at least a little idea of what this is about.

[Mary Etheldreda]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

How do you know magic works?

She doesn't. She just thinks it does because she is ignorant of how God created the natural elements to interact together.

The more you know...

[FreeFromBrains]

Re: Merry Meet, Christians

Most of the spells are based on rituals held on full moon, or at least at night and certain dates. And it's not like I had a choice. Once a witch, always a witch. My coven needs me, just as much as I need them

How do you know magic works? I'm at uni and I'm doing the philosophy of science and what sets science apart is that it uses evidence; this needs to be of a high standard.

What is the standard of evidence that you use when you come to the personal conclusion that magic actually has a real world effect that cannot be explained by the placebo or Hawthorn effect?

What controls do you use to minimise bias and what is the experimental design you use to gather and evaluate the evidence to draw conclusions as to whether or not magic actually works?