rationalskepticism.org

Cito di Pense wrote:Do you contend there is anything systematic about reports of sightings of ghosts? No? Then there is nothing systematic to investigate,

Incorrect. Your statement only backs up the fact that witnesses to these events CANNOT gather sufficient evidence.
And that there is no official procedure in place to collate data. If someone wanted to step in for initial research purposes, before forming a hypothesis to test.., then they would create a better reporting system.

Cito di Pense wrote:and you are simply proposing that people go on fishing expeditions to see what they catch.

I never said that. I am not telling people to go "fishing". I'm not telling people to quit there jobs, and buy equipment to research the possibility of ghosts being real or not.

Cito di Pense wrote:The downside is that they won't catch anything, and will have wasted plenty of time (and possibly even money) doing it.

This is your problem. Your forming conclusions BEFORE an investigation.., and using that CONCLUSION as PROOF they shouldn't try.

Cito di Pense wrote:There's nothing that prevents anyone from studying ghosts or, rather, reports of sightings of ghosts, but they have to do it at their own behest, and begging me for support is not going to get very far if they don't have anything systematic to investigate.

Wow, I'm new here. They beg you for support? What are the witnesses asking you to do? How many times?
Most witnesses I have heard from merely state what happened.., and that's it. One sighting. The majority.
IF.., you are dealing with someone who see's ghosts daily.., and is calling you for money? Ignore them, or call the police.

If its just someone asking for basic advice? Dude.., this is a web forum, for conversations.
Calm down, no one is forcing you to reply. It seems "sceptical" people here have lots of anger issues.

Cito di Pense wrote:This goes for UFOs as well. Your threads on these topics could be combined WLOG ("without loss of generality").

That's correct. I am making the same point about the evidence paradox.., however my thread asks other questions regarding UFOs and aliens. Its not JUST about the evidence paradox.