Posted by Paul Curtis [PaulCurtis] on November 02, 1999 at 16:57:46 {.c1iAaocfMrUNofY7cA.5g0AEs.foM}:
In Reply to: *Testing Ros4GB posted by metatron on November 02, 1999 at 07:53:43:
I remember something I read in Carl Sagan's "The Demon Haunted World"; This segment is lengthy but I have a point to make: ----
"But that doesn't mean I'd be willing to accept the pretensions of a "medium," who claims to channel the spirits of the dear departed, when I'm aware the practice is rife with fraud. I know how much I want to believe that my parents have just abandoned the husks of their bodies, like insects or snakes molting, and gone somewhere else. I understand that those very feelings might make me easy prey even for an unclever con, or for normal people unfamiliar with their unconscious minds, or for those suffering from a dissociative psychiatric disorder. Reluctantly, I rouse some reserves of skepticism."
"How is it, I ask myself, that channelers never give us verifiable information otherwise unavailable? Why does Alexander the Great never tell us about the exact location of his tomb, Fermat about his Last Theorem, John Wilkes Booth about the Lincoln assassination conspiracy, Hermann Goring about the Reichstag fire? Why don't Sophocles, Democritus, and Aristarchus dictate their lost books? Don't they wish future generations to have access to their masterpieces?"
"J.Z. Knight of the State of Washington claims to be in touch with a 35,000-year-old somebody called "Ramtha." He speaks English very well, using Knight's tongue, lips and vocal chords, producing what sounds to me to be an accent from the Indian Raj. Since most people know how to talk, and many -- from children to professional actors -- have a repertoire of voices at their command, the simplest hypothesis is that Ms. Knight makes "Ramtha" speak all by herself, and that she has no contact with disembodied entities from the Pleistocene Ice Age. If there's evidence to the contrary, I'd love to hear it. It would be considerably more impressive if Ramtha could speak by himself, without the assistance of Ms. Knight's mouth. Failing that, how might we test the claim? (The actress Shirley MacLaine attests that Ramtha was her brother in Atlantis, but that's another story.)"
"Suppose Ramtha were available for questioning. Could we verify whether he is who he says he is? How does he know that he lived 35,000 years ago, even approximately? What calendar does he employ? Who is keeping track of the intervening millennia? Thirty-five thousand plus or minus what? What were things like 35,000 years ago? Either Ramtha really is 35,000 years old, in which case we discover something about that period, or he's a phony and he'll (or rather she'll) slip up."
"Where did Ramtha live? (I know he speaks English with an Indian accent, but where 35,000 years ago did they do that?) What was the climate? What did Ramtha eat? (Archaeologists know something about what people ate back then.) What were the indigenous languages, and social structure? Who else did Ramtha live with -- wife, wives, children, grandchildren? What was the life cycle, the infant mortality rate, the life expectancy? Did they have birth control? What clothes did they wear? How were the clothes manufactured? What were the most dangerous predators? Hunting and fishing implements and strategies? Weapons? Endemic sexism? Xenophobia and ethnocentrism? And if Ramtha came from the "high civilization" of Atlantis, where are the linguistic, technological, historical and other details? What was their writing like? Tell us. Instead, all we are offered are banal homilies."
End of Quote
So, here we are, in the same position. We'd like to believe that our posting here, the work of the AJWRB, Kent's Website, and the like, are causing such upheavals at Brooklyn and Patterson, that a member of the GOVERNING BODY itself has come under cover of darkness, like Nicodemus, to reassure us that we are having a noticable impact, enough to cause him to play Fifth Columnist within Bethel.
And yet, where is the proof that he is what he says he is? None. In the word's of Carl Sagan, "banal homilies" are all that this guy is coming up with. I agree with barJonah that it would be very easy to offer something as proof without giving up his identity, three proofs would probably clinch the deal. I ain't holding my breath waiting for it to happen.
Somewhere down below in the previous postings, someone mentioned that Rick has a real credulity problem. I'm inclined to agree. In the past, he has posted "press releases" found elsewhere "confirming" the location of Noah's ark, and other things of this nature, only to sheepishly come back later and apologize, after it's brought to his attention that he was taken in by a fraud.
Please don't take offense to this, Rick. I appreciate this forum tremendously. I've been reading here since the old Free Zone website closed shop. I'm glad you stick with maintaining it. Just don't be so eager to share exciting, sensational news, until it can be solidly backed up by hard evidence.
Sagan's book is a definite must! I wish I had read it when I was younger (I wish Sagan had written it 15 years ago!). It encourages us to be cautious of taking anything at face value. (Why do we haggle mercilessly over an automobile purchase, but allow ourselves to be easily taken in by the worst kinds of emotional frauds, especially in religious beliefs?)
Sorry for the length of this post. Hope it was thought provoking.