I am actually offended by your insinuations that I am being disingenuous in my answers to you; I have been completely precise and honest. My views on soul and spirit are exactly as I wrote. You may of course believe what you wish.

If you really mean that a materialistic view of the mind cannot be dogmatic, then you are obviously dogmatic yourself about this. I emphasize this because I don't think you see it yourself, although it screams to high heavens.

What your mind seems incapable of grasping in this discussion, is that the view I hold on soul and spirit is an entirely pragmatic and functional view (typical for an engineer - which I also am). It in itself is neither materialistic, in the traditional sense, nor "spiritual" in the sense you like to hate.

I have answered you before on the question of whether I believe in "more than the ordinary physical" (or words to rather similar effect), and my answer to that is one of indecision; I am to about 60% convinced that there is more "to it" than the ordinary physical world, but to 40% I do share your view. However, the view held by the 60% of me is still a scientific view, since I believe there are scientific principles that apply to all of nature - whether ordinary physical, or "spiritual". So the "spiritual" would simply be a part of the physical, which science has yet to discover.


Quote Originally Posted by StephL View Post
So - if I take the scientific method then - yes - I could loose faith in it.
Good! There is still hope for you then.


Quote Originally Posted by StephL View Post
If for example you do the exact same experiment over and over and get out completely different and nonsensical results, without any flaws in procedure - that would shake up my understanding of how the scientific method works and it's reliability
I have bad news for you then, I'm afraid. They involve the excitation of electrons, and the time needed for reoccupying their old energy levels. But I'm not sure I have the heart to break the details to you.