Quote:
Originally Posted by Jack of Tears
So what qualifies as proof? Apparently eye witness accounts, studies from scholars, practitioners, and photographic evidence don't qualify as proof ... so how do you define proof? Typically skeptics will make "proof" something completely unachievable while believers will over simplify it ... there has to be a middle ground ... where is it?
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Perhaps there's a gap in my knowledge, then, because I have never seen a reliable study which has produced conclusive proof of ghosts or items holding onto energy. Photographs are unreliable because they can be (and have frequently been proven to have been) altered. Eye-witness accounts are likewise unreliable when taken alone, because some people lie or seek attention, some are highly suggestible, and some are just plain crazy. If you'd be good enough to provide one such study, your argument would be on far stronger ground.
However even a basic study of cultural history demonstrates that supposed manifestations of the paranormal adapt to suit the beliefs of the time in which they occur. For example, there were no tales of alien abduction before we became aware of the possibility of life on other planets.