[5.21] Journal II
The superstitious and the nonbeliever.
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I really enjoyed reading everyone’s comments and world-views during the previous update. Such thoughtful discussion was interesting and is always welcomed. Although not all of us agree on everything, at least there seems to be a consensus that the world is in trouble, and big actions need to be taken before it becomes an unpleasant place for humans to live.
Thanks to new patron Donald! Your contributions go a long way towards making this comic possible.
Thanks for reading, and looking forward to a great year 🙂
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5.21 Transcript
A: There’s an old hut higher up on the mountain from where we are. Daisy found it originally.
[A: She brought back to camp an artifact. A diary, which she showed to me.]
[A: It was over 100 years old. Miraculous it survived this long.]
A: It says this place is rife with un-natural activity, and I didn’t like the sound of that.
Daisy: I still think that part’s a bunch of baloney.
[A: Well, that didn’t stop Mom from taking an interest in it…]
What are your New Years resolutions? @everyone
I’ll be interested in your exploration of believer/skeptic issues. Up to this point, within the comic there is still room for nonbelief, although we readers have more evidence for the metaphysical so we’re likely to side with the believers.
It gets tricky when the fictional world is full of weird stuff (viz. Gunnerkrigg Court) yet some characters still refuse to accept it. If the paranormal exists and provides copious evidence, it’s not “scientific” (or rational) to deny it!
Also, you’re welcome 🙂
When presented with copious evidence, the scientific thing to do is still to formulate a hypothesis and design an experiment to test it. Only after many such experiments can it be considered a valid theory, and even that is most likely not a universal truth. Science is tedious and far more full of questions than truths. But we have experiments: this is how we pose our questions to the laws of nature, we test it out and see what actually happens.
If the world happens to have weird paranormal stuff in it (you can make the case that quantum mechanics fall into this description), and it is repeatable and predictable, then it can be scientifically tested. But it will never be supernatural, it will just redefine our understanding of nature.
There is one thing that is very hard to do scientifically: to prove that something does not exist. I think the only way to do that is to prove that the existence of such would lead to a paradox. Essentially this can only be done in mathematics, but that does include applied mathematics, which encompasses most of computer science and small subsets of chemistry and physics and probably some things that I do not know.
Rational, on the other hand, is a very different thing from scientific! Especially when confronted with copious evidence. Apparently easier, to those that are any good at it. 😉
I love this series! Mysterious and fantasy-like <3