…as a University of Central Florida physics professor has done–is a silly game. As if people who believe in ghosts and vampires in the first place are going to be put off by scientific arguments to the contrary. It’s like saying magic can’t exist because it’s not science. Well, no, it’s not, but that’s the whole point, isn’t it? It’s supernatural; i.e., something that lies outside the realm of normal physics, and therefore something to which the rules of science do not apply.
Scientific arguments against the supernatural don’t work with people who believe in the supernatural because the scientific arguments are based on the notion that everything obeys the universal laws of physics, and those who believe in the supernatural have already chosen to believe that, in fact, there are things that do not obey the laws of physics.
You can’t prove to someone who believes their house has been broken into by a robber that in fact their house has not been broken into by a robber because there are laws against people breaking into houses.
You can’t convince someone who does not believe in the universal truth of the Bible that what they are doing is wrong because the Bible says it is.
And you can’t convince someone who believes in beings that operate outside the laws of physics that such beings cannot exist because they violate the laws of physics.
Of course they do. So what?”
***
*None of which is to say I believe in ghosts, vampires, telepathy, astrology, or other such paranormal fiddlefaddle, although I reserve the right to utilize any and all such fiddlefaddle in fiction.
