Hi Mordred,



I accept the existence of the planet Neptune but I've never experienced it. I accept that the earth has an iron core which produces its magnetic field but I've never been to the earth's core. We look at evidence for and against to weigh the likelihood of something. This, in my opinion, is true skepticism, which requires an open mind. Dismissing everything lumped into the category of "the supernatural" out of hand isn't skepticism, it's dogmatism. I myself am an agnostic, as I think you are too, so often my own beliefs about the nature of the world are on a spectrum of uncertainty and subject to change depending on the emergence of new evidence.



Near death experiences have been so commonly reported that I think it's logical to accept that the phenomenon occurs. Like I said about ghosts, we don't understand much (if anything) about what's really happening, but something is happening, or else all of these people are mistaken or deluded. Some would have us believe that it's nothing more than neurons and electricity in the brain. It's comforting, scientific, completely anti-mystical. But can we know that this is any more the truth than that someone really has seen God if they claim they have? And how would you explain experiences people have had where they can describe what other people were doing in the room, and in other rooms as well, when their body was lying prostrate on the bed? There's just a lot we don't understand and I would be careful about coming to premature conclusions.



I think that if a person sits back and tells the world to come to them, they will be sorely disappointed. Spirituality seems to be an aspect of life which offers its rewards to those who go looking for them. I myself have never had an "enlightenment," I've never physically seen angels or been offered a revelation or anything like that, but then it's not always that dramatic for many people. My own way is through meditation. I'm not even Christian anymore, but I still believe there are things we can get in touch with which transcend mudane sensory experience.



I enjoy considering the possibility that bigfoot might exist. Not helped, of course, by the frozen rubber suit recently in the news Hoaxers like these ensure that serious science doesn't get done because people don't want to risk their reputations.

You seem to be more open-minded than most rational people, which I think is a very positive thing. Like I said, I think this is the true spirit of skepticism and the scientific method even, because it requires you to set aside what may seem impossible and consider the evidence. Plate tectonics is one theory that went through this process.