A Short Chat with A Gullible Skeptic

A Short Chat with A Gullible Skeptic

How much Magic is there in The World?

There is No Magic.

But before we allow that there is Magic or No Magic, Isn’t it important that we define what we mean by ‘Magic’, After all; How can you say that something doesn’t exist, when we haven’t even established What it is we’re talking about. And furthermore; Once we define The Concept of Magic, How can you allow that there is a proper definition for something that doesn’t exist?

I Assume that you were referring to Magic as a Supernatural Force, as opposed to Stage Magic, or Magic as Performance Illusions, & if we allow that Magic transcends reality; Then; Given that Reality is Everything, Nothing can Transcend it. Thus; Such Magic as this; Does not Exist.

Perhaps we should return to my original question; ‘How much Magic is There in The World?’ And ask; What did i mean by this? What Answer was i Expecting?

Indeed; What Answer were you expecting?

We might well allow that there is Fiction & Truth; As in when we consider; Which is Stranger; Truth or Fiction? And to this Question; It might be suggested that Today’s Truth is Stranger than Yesterday’s Fiction; And by that i mean, Literally; The Truth of Now, is Stranger than The Fiction that just preceded Now; And this fine Caveat is introduced upon The Premise that we might be able to Quantify Today’s Truth for Strangeness; And then Take This Morning’s Fiction & simply add sufficient Strangeness by means of Ones Imagination, To make it stranger...

And this all Precludes The Suggestion that Truth, Irregardless of how mundane it is; Is far stranger than Fiction, because it it True, & Exists in The Realm of Reality; & that Fiction; Since it does not Exist at all; Is excluded from a Consideration of -Any- Strangeness, As The Idea of Strangeness may only be applied to Things that are Real.

Perhaps then; We need to Introduce a New Idea; or Define, for this Argument, An Old Word to Mean something that makes sense, within this Context. As Such; The Idea of Oddness may Apply to Both Real & Imaginary things, Equally in a Quantifiable Sense, to mean; What we Commonly Attribute to Strangeness.

How does this fit in with The Original Question of : How much Magic is there in The World?

Yes. Well; i had intended to introduce this idea of Strangeness, Truth & Fiction as a Tangental Digression, Before you began to question The Validity of This Examination itself.

I apologize for my unwarranted attention to details.

Then— My intended point was something along The Lines of; If we allow that There are Fictional Accounts that Transcend The ‘Oddness’ of Reality, Then might there be Causal Agents that Transcend Those that are Currently ‘Understood’ as having Originated in Reality; Or having been caused by well defined & documented forces belonging within The Standard Model & also Gravity.

This According to this Definition of Magic; If I am accurately following your proposal; Magic consists of Forces & Actions, Causality of Events & Such that are ‘Real’, But not yet fully documented & Labeled.

Yes. Mysterious Things. That is Magic. We might use such Causal Forces to Explain Consciousness, Awareness, A Variety of Evolutionary Steps, Many Biological Functions & Several Cosmological Observations.

I agree that The Scientific Description of Reality is Incomplete, but what is The Service, or Functionality of Defining these ‘Incomplete Elements’ as ‘Magic’ ?

Tomorrow, & The Day after that; Many New Discoveries, Insights & Revelations will add to Our Growing Understanding of Reality; But Some Mysteries will remain Mysterious tomorrow & remain Mysterious for weeks or months to come.

Yes.

Might it be Entirely Reasonable to suppose then; That some Mysteries will remain mysterious for a very long time to come. So long in fact; That one may wonder if they will ever be understood?

Let us Redefine these ‘Mysteries of The 30th Century ( & Beyound )’ as ‘Super Mysteries’. And i Predict that you’re Next Step would be to Redefine these Super Mysteries as Quantifiably Different from Ordinary ‘Deep Mysteries’. Am I then willing; Let us say; Willing, to allow that there may exist this Category of Unsolvable Intractable Super Mysteries, And might These Super Mysteries be What we, even now, think of As Magic?

That is one aspect to What we might think of as ‘Magic’; But i am also willing to allow that These Things we ‘Now’ call ‘Magic’; Might well be fully ( Comparatively Speaking ) Understood; But that is ‘Advanced Understanding’ of Magic, May allow that The Causal Agents of Magic may exist somehow ‘Outside’ of our reality.

There are Two Problems with that assertion; One, Reality is Everything, therefore there can’t be anything ‘Outside’ of Reality. And Two; There is absolutely No Empirical Evidence for The Existence of Such Causal Agencies. The Introduction of any ‘Hypothesizes’ or ‘Conjectures’ without a foundation of Observations, Is just make-believe.

Well— Aside from All The Observations of Mysterious Phenomena.

You are speaking of Bigfoot?

Partly. Generic Quixotic Phenomena. Allowing that Quixotic Phenomena, or Quixotic Observations Exist, as they surely do, ( Whatever it is that they represent ) And presupposing that some ( However infinitesimal ) of these observations are of phenomena caused by Super Mysterious Forces & Causal Agents; The Original Question Asks; How [ Many ] of These Observations are Related to These Super Mysteries, In The World?

We would first have to Establish what these Super Mysteries are, And The only way to do that, is to wait several more millennia to find what is still unexplained. A more; Perfectly reasonable question might be; How many Accurate Observations by Trained or UnTrained Persons are of Things that Defy An Explanation by Our Current Understanding of The World. We might allow that such Observations are of Things we may call; “Relatively Magical”.

And we might be willing to agree that this latter question is perfectly answerable.

In Theory— Of Course.