Research and Motivation (theology)

[Storm]

Originally Posted by Jaiket

Well, I can't imagine many researchers go looking for something without hoping to find it.

If I wanted to find the mechanism of a drug X action in the body I'd look for a receptor. I'd hope and expect to find one, and upon doing so I think it would be silly for people to disregard my research because I was biased towards the receptor hypothesis.

What about more nebulous stuff, like Persinger's attempt to disprove OOBEs?

[Jaiket]

Originally Posted by Storm

What about more nebulous stuff, like Persinger's attempt to disprove OOBEs?

I don't really know much about it.

[Storm]

OK. Well, obviously, I'm biased, so I won't try to explain it myself.

[Jaiket]

Originally Posted by Storm

OK. Well, obviously, I'm biased, so I won't try to explain it myself.

Why not?

[Storm]

Because you'd only be getting my side of the story and I think he's so biased it invalidates the research?

Oh, and I think it was NDEs, not OOBEs.

[Jaiket]

Originally Posted by Storm

Because you'd only be getting my side of the story and I think he's so biased it invalidates the research?

OK. Why do you think his bias invalidates his research?

[Storm]

Mostly because he exaggerates (imo) the significance of his findings. For instance, claiming to have debunked NDEs becuase his "God helmet" can make a person see a tunnel. As I said upthread (don't know if you've read the whole thing), "invalidates his research" is a bit of an overstatement (I should probably stop saying, huh?). The raw data might be salvageable, but I would need an entirely different team of researchers to take it over before I took it seriously. Personally, I have such grave misgivings about his bias that I dismiss his work entirely.