LiveForTheLaunch said:
With the amount of other galaxies there are in the universe, it's almost statistically certain that there is life somewhere other than earth.
Ghosts, on the other hand, there is absolutely no evidence (other than anecdotal) that they exist. It just isn't possible!
Statistically certain, yes. But, absolutely 100% proven? Nope. He just chooses to believe it, much like I choose to believe in ghosts based on the "evidence" I've been presented.
Yes, but your evidence relies on belief in the evidence proving your theory ghosts are real. It's a circular argument to back up your belief. Your belief is based on evidence which requires your belief to accept as evidence. If you didn't believe in ghosts, would the evidence compel you to believe in ghosts?
I've already said this. I am open minded enough to accept any evidence and if it's solid, I will believe in ghosts. Yet you are closed minded and will not accept anything other than your own belief based on what you think - throwing out logic and evidence and only believing that things can back you up - even if there is a better explanation.
You need to understand the concept of large numbers Taylor. It's a mathematical system for producing base theories on the chance of something being true or not.
If you can't get your head around it, you'll struggle
Basically, you need to just get an idea of the scale of things. If there were 100 people in a village and 1% of them had evidence of ghosts, then that's just one of those hundred people. In country scales (say the US), that is 1 person in 304 million
1 in 100 is a good number, and quite a high ratio. 1 in 304 million is such a tiny spec it's insignificant. Yet, people do win the lottery
However, 22% of Americans say they have experienced an encounter with a ghost.
Now, to a believer, the answer is "well, there must be ghosts for 6,688,000 people to have experienced them".
But, you need to look at it from the other point of view. Out of over six and a half million ghost sightings, there is not one single bit of conclusive evidence they exist. Look at the numbers involved here.
Walking down the street in the US, 1 in 5 people has had an encounter with a ghost. With that much ghostly activity going on, you'd think it would be pretty easy to get a sampling of good evidence wouldn't you? Let's face it, there's that much ghostly activity going on, it must be happening all the time - yet nobody, in hundreds of years of studying it, has managed to capture any evidence.
The numbers just don't work out. Let's go to the lottery again, it's like the lottery is never won. Even though millions play and everyone has a chance, nobody wins it ever. At some point (within a couple of weeks), people would be shouting foul. If 22% of the total lottery numbers are sold, then there's roughly a 1 in 5 chance that the lottery will be won (remembering that individually it's a 1 in several million chance you'll win).
What we're talking about here is that 1 in 5 chance never happening in hundreds of years.
The huge number of people involved, even if there's on 1% of that 22% who have had real experience, that's still 688,000 people. Now, try to imagine that number and count it. It's an enormous number of people. Surely, out of 688,000 people there would be some evidence? There should be something that somebody can prove?
How about 1% of that 1%? That's still 6,880 people with real experiences! There's more than enough evidence there surely? Yet still we have nothing.
1% of 1% of 1%? 6,800 people. Look at the tiny percentages we're looking at here - one thousandth of a percent of sightings, and there's still 680 people and still no evidence.
See the general theory you have to go on is that if percentage chances of something being true are tiny, but the actual numbers are huge and there's no evidence - then you must discount any possibility. This is something that's really important to grasp. Massive numbers + tiny percentage + no evidence = not happening.
I do believe that there is a very good chance that there are aliens. Why? I use the same theory.
Massive numbers show us this. The universe is almost infinite in size. billions upon billions of stars. There's probably a billionth of a percent of chance that life can evolve on a perfect planet orbiting a star in just the right way. Given the mind boggling numbers involved, that still means that there are millions of potentials for life out.
Now, remember, massive numbers + tiny percentage + no evidence = not happening. However, we have evidence, we're living proof it has happened before. So given the infinite size of the universe, any tiny percentage will give a positive result. We are here because the percentages worked for us, so they will for others.
The difference is, I'm working up using big numbers from a point of proof. In the few hundred star systems we've studied closely, we still have evidence of one planet with life on it.
This is just a belief in a chance though, not a belief in actual aliens. I believe that statistically, it would be massively unusual for there not to be another planet out there with life on it given the overwhelming evidence it can happen once.
In the tens of thousands of studied hauntings, there is no evidence. So clearly the maths points to possibilities for alien life but does not point to possibilities for ghosts.
And also, I don't believe aliens have deliberately visited us and are "studying us". If an alien race has ever come here (which I actually doubt) then it almost certainly was an accident.
I'll leave you with another figure from the US.
22% of Americans have had a paranormal experience. 26% of Americans admit to having mental health problems (this discounts those who are locked away with serious mental health issues). I'm not saying that the 22% of those who've experienced paranormal experiences are part of that 26% - but I'm sure that not everyone knows (or would admit to) having mental health issues. Bit of food for thought
