Wayfarer

Re the China Trade War: one of the snippets that's come out of the last few days commentary, is that Trump mistakenly believes that China pays the US ...

From the perspective of philosophy of religion, 'existence' is what 'the transcendent' is transcendent in relation to. So, whether or not there are de...

Hey no probs. At least it's a civil discussion, which for this thread is something. In the Buddhist view of life, the inevitability of re-birth is nev...

Sure, agree with all that too. Had he been researching that kind of subject, like illnesses or something of the kind, as I say, nobody would quibble -...

Sure, roger all that. And read up on the replication crisis. The point is, were he reporting asthma, or moles, nobody would think twice about it, but ...

Sure. Absolutely acknowledge that. As I said from the outset, my aim was to draw attention to these cases, so as to demonstrate the falsehood of the c...

I've acknowledged that the possibility of past-life memories doesn't conflict with my philosophy. If that amounts to 'bias' then so be it. But the rea...

That’s what the research comprises, though. Stevenson's program ran from the early 1980'2 until his death in 2007. He did a lot of field trips and int...

You mean, other than the documented cases being discussed? My judgement is that there are too many corroborations in those cases to be dismissed as co...

It's more like this: that either there is no evidence at all for the possibility of a genuine past-life memory, or there is at least one genuine case....

Quite. But the same can be said of the critics. I was reading an essay in Aeon about research in epigenetics: This apparently is being validated in nu...

Well, he can't, because he's dead (unless, of course.....) But in all honesty - how do you think you would go trying to raise a grant for this kind of...

This is the crack in the egg, you know.

You're dissembling, S. All you've said from the very beginning of this thread is, 'I don't care what "evidence" this Stevenson says he's got, we know ...

Not demonstrable on the basis of anything I’ve said. There is an obvious conflict between such beliefs and scientific materialism. I've read the Wiki ...

But what ‘alternative explanations’ could there be, other than Stevenson being wrong and the witnesses lying? If someone says he remembers something t...

There is a lot of documentary and other evidence. But your response to the suggestion pretty well exactly illustrates the point. Right from the outset...

I'm working with the definition of materialism that is commonly accepted by the majority of working academics and scientists. This holds that the basi...

Right! Thanks. Glad we got to the bottom of that, then.

So why do you think this kind of research is regarded as ‘fringe’ or ‘alternative’. Do you think that investigation of children who claim to recall th...

I do note this, ‘yeah, Trump is bad. But what about Obama! What about Clinton! They’re so much worse than even him, but the Liberal Media can’t admit ...

I had wanted to finish with this topic, but I have to address this point. When I say 'scientific secular philosophy', it's a rather less confrontation...

Blast! You guessed! But at least you now know the most important man in the world will waste time talking to the likes of you.

Please don't condescend to tell me what I do or don't understand. Where I came into this thread, I noted that 'evidence of rebirth' is the only post-m...

Stevenson’s research was just such an attempt. Others are claiming that these efforts ‘were discredited’ without saying by whom, or how. They reject t...

Of course I do. And the reason I say that rebirth theories are rejected a priori on such grounds, is that it requires the existence of some psychic me...

It hasn’t. It’s not as if the cases were re-examined and alternative explanations found for them. If was mainly simply ignored by mainstream science, ...

You said it outright. Judge for yourself. In this matter there is a strong prejudice against the very notion. That is un-arguable. I have not been att...

I say ‘the soul’ simply denotes the totality of the being - talents, inclinations, vices and flaws, history and destiny. The whole enchilada. That’s i...

I’m not saying that others aren’t thinking rationally. I’m saying that adherence to a secular-scientific worldview inhibits consideration of such idea...

What I mean is, if you're not attached to such an attitude, then such ideas as these may not appear as threatening or offensive as the plainly do to m...

Not what I meant. I mean that commitment to a secular~scientific view rules out such beliefs and prevents consideration of them.

We already have a prototype. It's called the Chinese Communist Party.

If I said I did, what would it mean? 'Oh, you can't be sure. Memory plays tricks, you know. And what about wishful thinking!' Accordingly I am not spe...

It's not so much that you don't believe it, but that you can't believe it.

One might acquire them by recalling a past life.

And a lot of it, other people's money. Also remember the NYT expose last Sept that he was given, not one million by his father, but more than 400 mill...

Of course. Conflating two principles there. The questions that the 'poison arrow' parable were concerned with were speculations about whether the worl...

It’s always made intuitive sense to me. Clearly others feel differently.

Not at all -- the opposite, in fact. What you recognise when you recognise an apple, is a type, which can then be generalised to all such types, and a...

Scientific method relies on the ability to capture just those attributes of subjects in such a way as to be able to make quantitative predictions abou...

as per the post above!

Sure - a lot of secular Buddhist teaching is like that. And it makes perfect sense. My only observation is, if it can happen once.......

Well, the ultimate aim of Buddhism - being a religion - is to realise 'the deathless'. That is one of the meanings or implications of Nirvana, and wha...

I agree that it's challenging from the perspective of individualist philosophy. But I think Buddhism challenges the sense of self identity by saying t...

But that does rely on there being an essence. What is 'essence'? It is 'what makes a thing or being itself' in the tradition of Aristotelian metaphysi...

You're addressing me as if I did this research or am responsible for it, which I obviously wasn't. I'm simply presenting information about the researc...

honestly, the diversion of this thread into ridiculous and jejune accusations of sexual crimes and innuendoes does no justice to the actual topic, whi...

Physics is derived from the Greek 'study of nature', conventionally distinguished from metaphysics. So I would say, different in kind. Post Galilean s...

I had composed a very long response to your post, but I thought better of it. There's strong resistance to his claims, because, as I said, it's cultur...