Mr Harris? Hello. I’m Sue from the insurance company. I’ve come to value your artwork. Oh, yes, hello. Do come in. What a lovely house you have here! Is this the piece you want valued? That’s it, yes. How much did it cost? No idea. It was here when I moved in. It’s fascinating. How …
Category Archives: Science vs religion and pseudoscience
Can I break the laws of physics?
A Guide for the Confused
What to do if you REALLY have ‘psychic powers’
If you genuinely, honestly, sincerely believe that you have ‘psychic’ or ‘paranormal’ or ‘supernatural’ powers, there is only one course open to you as a compassionate, caring human being. Since you are claiming you can break physics at will, the place to go is a physics lab. Credibly demonstrate your ‘psychic powers’ to the scientists in the …
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The Rules of Comic-book Science
All science is carried out by brilliant individuals working in isolation, either by themselves or with a small group of minions whose only role is to carry out their instructions. Making a brilliant discovery or invention, which contradicts the laws of physics as we know it, requires only a concentrated effort by any one of …
Atheists, why is the universe so orderly? Why is everything not just chaotic?
The universe certainly started out chaotic, with subatomic particles flying every which way at high speeds. But over time certain things happened: Particles collided. Some of them annihilated each other, some of them bounced apart at lower speeds, having lost energy in the collision, and some of them joined together. Those that joined together began …
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“I CAN do psychic stuff in public: I just don’t WANT to”
Suppose I told you I have just married into an extraordinary family. I have thousands of new in-laws, extending all around the world, and although they are otherwise normal people in every respect, they have two things in common. The first is that they can all run very fast. Much faster than the average human …
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The Acid Test for Real Science: Does it GO somewhere?
There have been a number of studies published in even quite reputable journals which purport to show results indicating that ESP, or ‘psychic’ powers, or ‘supernatural’ phenomena, are real. It’s not always easy for a lay person without a scientific background to understand why these are not taken seriously by sceptics. What is it that …
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If ‘psychics’ are genuine, then they’re all jerks
Suppose you meet someone at a party. Let’s call her ‘Kim’. And over the course of your conversation, Kim claims that she can fly, unaided, just like Superman. “Oh,” you say. “Is that meant to be a secret? Because I have never heard of you.” “No, it’s not a secret. I just don’t make a …
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A question for that guy who knows EVERYTHING…
Somehow the word seems to have got around that some person on Quora knows everything. I don’t know who this person is. It’s certainly not me, and it’s not any of the people whose answers I have read. Some of them know a great deal about one thing; some of them know a lot about …
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We’re just not very important. Sorry and all that.
There is clearly a deep-seated and widespread tendency towards megalomania in some members of the human race. Many, many people seem to desperately need to feel that they are in some sense important to the universe. The whole of religion, in fact, can be seen as an expression of the desire to be regarded as …
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Jon's Quora content 