Sunday, February 27, 2011

Psychic Science


Earlier this week I was walking to my car in the WalMart parking lot and noticed a business card stuck on my window. The card was for a local psychic who specializes in palm readings and predicting the future. Later that day an article in The New York Times about extra sensory perception (ESP) caught my attention. It states that The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, a highly respected peer reviewed journal will soon be printing an issue that includes an article on ESP that claims to have evidence that ESP exists. Understandably there has been outrage among some psychologists that the journal has found this article worthy of publishing. At first I was shocked that a reputable journal would publish an article on ESP since it is most widely viewed as a pseudoscience. I am concerned that after this article is published people will assume that ESP is legitimate since it is now "supported by science." I hope that those who read the article will think critically about the methods used and the conclusions made about the study's findings. After all, even if ESP does exist it does not necessarily lead us to a better way of life. Just like what we have been discussing in class, "everything that is real is not necessarily true."

1 comment:

  1. This is really interesting that a psychological journal claims to have "proof" that ESP exists. Like you said, it's concerning to think that people won't think critically for themselves and will simply believe this information is true just because a journal has supposedly given proof of it. Just becaue there may be some "real" proof of ESP existing, does not meant that it is true and leads us to God's truth.

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