The Right Way to Debunk

Yes. They need to be guided to the realization that their experiences weren't real. And, yet, religion results in bloodshed and ignorance, and science solves human problems and helps people. I don't think that's just coincidence. It's the "Boy who cried wolf" problem. Anecdotal experience is like a pipe, out of which is flowing evidence; but almost all of it is bad evidence. It's wrong.So the output of that pipe gets ignored - because there's no way to tell the good evidence from the bad, and most of it is bad. Most of it has been proven to be bad. The only reasonable course is to ignore it all in favor of more reliable pipes - like the pipe of scientific inquiry - out of which flows evidence that is almost always accurate.There's no way to tell an accurate anecdote from a bad one, except by comparing the anecdotes to more reliable sources and rejecting the one that doesn't fit. There's no such thing as a good anecdote that contradicts the scientific consensus. There can't be. We'd have no way to know whether or not that anecdote was reliable except in terms of how consistent it was with the science. But it's already done that. That's how we know supernatural experiences aren't real - they've already been debunked. And we did learn some fascinating things. And so would you, if you looked into it with objectivity and a lack of preconceptions except those formed from good evidence.

There's no such thing as "scientism." That's a weasel word that woo-promoters use to discredit science when it conflicts with their ideology. Science can detect anything we can detect with our senses. By definition, anything humans can detect that actually corresponds to external reality is being detected by our senses, because that's what senses do - they detect things in reality.Thus, experiences of "detection" that are not via the human senses must, therefore, be inventions of the mind - delusions. Sure,y ou'd like to hold out the idea that "there's more than what we can sense", but if we can't sense it, how would we know about it? How would we generate ideas about it that would be anything but guessing, and therefore immediately false?If there's something "out there", but we can't generate accurate ideas about it, what's the point in holding the door open when nothing good can come through?And moreover - what makes you think that science doesn't provide a nearly endless supply of "more than we can see"? It seems like science has illuminated a hundred invisible worlds, some as close to us as our skin, and the advantage science has is that those new worlds are really real, not the fancy of religion or philosophy. And we can generate, through science, through our senses, accurate information about those worlds.Surely generating accurate information is a more noble cause than generating flights of fancy. How on Earth can the mysteries of the universe we know about not be enough for someone? I just can't understand it. Why try to gild the lily? The universe is already vast and weirder than you can imagine. Anything you could make up with your little human mind - be it religion, or God, or spirituality, or the Force, or what have you - must pale by comparison to what's really out there.Science is the gateway to what's really out there. Your imagination, your gut feelings, can't take you nearly as far - they can't take you anywhere but where you already are. Well, one in 4 Americans had a diagnosed mental illness in the past year, and one in four of those had a serious mental illness, like schizophrenia.Also 50% is about how many Americans question the evolutionary model and promote some kind of creationism, incidentally. It is true. There has never been a paranormal experience that has survived rigorous inquiry. In almost every study the proponents of the specific woo under inquiry are worked closely with, to ensure that the methodology doesn't interfere with the test. If even the specific proponents of the paranormal signed off on the methodology, what possible objection can you raise? A lot of them do, when faced with the evidence. A fair number of them say "oh, I guess I didn't have a paranormal power I could use at any time. I guess it was just wishful thinking."

Take your time. My busy holiday stuff starts on Friday so I probably couldn't get back with a reply until January.