Do ghosts exist?

[GaryA]

So are you saying that the Bing Bang theory doesn't explain the observations as well as a competing theory?

And if you're going to bandy insults around, at least learn to spell and punctuate properly: it's ignoramus.

I'm saying there is on-going research and a certain number of theoretical difficulties (as voiced by professional cosmologists) over the big bang theory. It is by no means universally accepted.
If you dont want insults (observations actually) then dont sarcastically make erroronous assumptions over the motivation of those pointing out such things.

We all make spelling mistakes...even you.

This little tiff belongs in P&L anyway......

 

[Crackle]

Can we stick with with the spooky stories pulease!

Absolutely Jim. I'm a 100% with you and if I was in business, I'd be a 110% with you.

 

[ArDee]

Absolutely Jim. I'm a 100% with you and if I was in business, I'd be a 110% with you.

OK here you go;
Our last house was built in 1892 and had been used as a private nursing home from 1938 to 1985 and our present house was built as three separate cottages in 1665ish; not seen anything in either house with regards to people and you'd think that there should be.

But in our last house after our cat had died, all of us; Mrs ArDee, Master ArDee and myself all believed that we'd seen the cat walk across the living room from the door to its favourite place by the radiator.

 

[MontyVeda]

When i was about 15, I went down to rural Norfolk with my best friend to stay with his dad, a vicar, in a very old vicarage. It was straight out of Hammer Horror; middle of nowhere, top of a hill, no other houses to be seen. In the room we stayed in, there was an inbuilt wardrobe which neither of us dare open because we had a feeling something truly evil was inside (a body, a skeleton, who knows) His grandparents also came to stay for a few days and one dark and stormy night, I needed a slash... so i crept out onto the dark landing, only to see a murky figure at the far end of the corridor, breathing uneasy, shuffling like something deformed. I stood frozen, speechless for a few very long seconds before the very elderly granddad finally found the light switch... he needed a slash too. After two weeks, it was time to leave and we finally plucked up the courage to open the wardrobe... inside was nothing but a solitary airfix model, still boxed and unmade, of a sea-king helicopter.. it don't even have any guns or missiles on it.

 

[benb]

I'm saying there is on-going research and a certain number of theoretical difficulties (as voiced by professional cosmologists) over the big bang theory. It is by no means universally accepted.
If you dont want insults (observations actually) then dont sarcastically make erroronous assumptions over the motivation of those pointing out such things.

We all make spelling mistakes...even you.

This little tiff belongs in P&L anyway......

Haha, well spotted. I blame Microsoft! Anyway, you did call me an ignoramus, which I thought was a bit unfair.

I didn't mean to suggest that the Big Bang theory is watertight. Nothing is in science, and its most faithful adherent would accept a new theory that explained it better.

What I said was that it is currently the best model we have to explain the observations we make. Yes, there are gaps in our understanding, but as far as I know there is nothing else that comes close.

Do you disagree with that?

 

[SpokeyDokey]

Well presumably the person in question doesn't take the Bible literally, which is quite possible.

I'm not religious myself, but faced with a concept of a Big Bang, in which apparently, everything in an infinite universe was created out of nothing, I can see how believing in a creating deity doesn't seem so odd. Listening to discussions of quantum physics and so on, at my layman's level, it all sounds just as made up as any religion. Perhaps, eventually, it's more provable, but I'm not even sure about that - the best we can say is that the theory fits the evidence - we can't set up an alternative universe to check...

But that's the thing with religion. As soon as you say that something in the bible is total tosh to a person of religious persuasion (who also understands it really is total tosh) they say something along the lines of 'well the bible is not literal you know'.

Slipperier than a bag of eels these believers! It's literal when they want it to be and vice-versa.

Tbh, and no offence intended, it beggars belief that anyone can say that eg Quantum Physics is as made up as the Bible.

The Bible is a set of stories made up by some, by today's standards, pretty ignorant people. Quantum Physics is built upon decades of research by numerous eminent, and not so eminent, scientists.

Does anyone really watch the likes of Prof' Cox and think that he is spewing out fairy tales?

Science works for me because it postulates theories that can then be proven or not. If it's proven then it goes into the great repository of knowledge that provides the foundation for future theories.

There was a program on a while back where some believers and non-believers traveled through America testing various scientific theories.

One young religious girl totally 'got' evolution when a sequence of skeletons, that were steps in the evolutionary process, were laid out in front of her but she had to reject the notion as it would compromise her faith. Says it all really.

 

[Trembler49]

But that's the thing with religion. As soon as you say that something in the bible is total tosh to a person of religious persuasion (who also understands it really is total tosh) they say something along the lines of 'well the bible is not literal you know'.

Slipperier than a bag of eels these believers! It's literal when they want it to be and vice-versa.

Tbh, and no offence intended, it beggars belief that anyone can say that eg Quantum Physics is as made up as the Bible.

The Bible is a set of stories made up by some, by today's standards, pretty ignorant people. Quantum Physics is built upon decades of research by numerous eminent, and not so eminent, scientists.

Does anyone really watch the likes of Prof' Cox and think that he is spewing out fairy tales?

Science works for me because it postulates theories that can then be proven or not. If it's proven then it goes into the great repository of knowledge that provides the foundation for future theories.

There was a program on a while back where some believers and non-believers traveled through America testing various scientific theories.

One young religious girl totally 'got' evolution when a sequence of skeletons, that were steps in the evolutionary process, were laid out in front of her but she had to reject the notion as it would compromise her faith. Says it all really.

This is all quite rational, but (you knew there was going to be a but), the main problem with science is that those at the cutting edge understand it (mostly) but can't explain it, people like the good Prof Cox then step in because they understand a lot of it, but are brilliant at explaining things.

Thus, those that are good at explaining things to us, don't really know what is going on either. Quantum physics is a classic case of this.

 

[Arch]

Tbh, and no offence intended, it beggars belief that anyone can say that eg Quantum Physics is as made up as the Bible.

I didn't say it was. I said that to my layman's ears (as someone with a certain amount of scientific understanding, but not really in physics) it sounds like it could be. Electrons theoretically jumping outside a box? Sounds like magic.

I'm happy to accept it, as there are clearly minds greater than mine working on it. But I'm happy if other people want to have a faith, if they don't force it on me....

 

[grumpyoldgit]

I like Jethro's story about Denzil Penberthy having sex with a ghost.

 

[speccy1]

I would always have said no, but I had my first doubtfull experience a few months ago. Walking home along a disused railway which has been a cycle route for a few years, the route includes a tunnel which is pretty long, and is curved so once you are half way through it`s like a black hole. Anyway as I was pounding my way through minding my own business somebody behind me sighed and grunted as if to say "get a move on and get out of my way", why I turned around to see what the impatient sod looked like, there was nobody there!! It scared the crap out of me and still makes my hair stand on end to think about it, and the most annoying thing is nobody believes me, I know what I heard and saw though.......................