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Originally Posted by Chris Noble  This is where I have a problem. Accordingly to Sheldrake we are supposed to attach a great weight to peoples personal beliefs of they think they (or their dogs) can do. |
No, we're supposed to investigate scientifically claims that have been made repeatedly throughout history, rather than scoffing at them.
That's what it's all about.
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Originally Posted by Chris Noble And every 20th study would get statistically significant results by pure chance.
Most scientists know that it takes more than a single positive study to provide sufficient evidence for a novel claim. |
You obviously haven't been paying much attention to what I've been writing. I've pointed out repeatedly that science is a cumulative enterprise. So yes, I agree with you.
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Originally Posted by Chris Noble Paranormal proponents attach far too much importance to single positive studies rather than the totality of the research program. |
What's this supposed to mean? Parapsychologists have done tons of meta-analyses.
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Originally Posted by Chris Noble What would the peer-review by the parapsychology journals possibly add to the process. |
A critical examination of the JREF testing.
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Originally Posted by Chris Noble The applicants have agreed to the protocols and the interpretation of the results in advance. You haven't answered this. |
Yes I have. I wrote: "The claimant doesn't necessarily know what's a reasonable scientific benchmark. Usually they think they think they're much better than they really are (if they have any ability at all, that is)."
You, however, sidetracked the issue and began talking about Rupert Sheldrake and peoples' experiences. What was that all about?
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Originally Posted by Chris Noble This is actually more open than most scientific research. |
You can't make all kinds of claims in public without having your research peer-reviewed. You'd probably agree with this if we were talking about parapsychologists. Keeping your files open for people to look at them is great, but you usually publish your results somewhere as well.
Look Chris, my problem with the challenge is that it pretends to be more than it really is. As soon as a parapsychologist publishes a positive result, Randi will shout at him to apply for the challenge. In what other branch of science would something like that happen?
As I said before, the attitude of many skeptics is that 60+ years of scientific research into psychic phenomena by hundreds of scientists, is useless as long as nobody wins the million dollars. But why should one challenge with occasional tests outweigh thousands of experiments by trained scientists? Why? It doesn't make sense.