Has the Large Hadron Collider Disproved the Existence of Ghosts?

[progressoid]

Much of the general public probably isn't aware of these fascinating, yet unfortunately, esoteric discoveries at the LHC. Particle physics simply doesn't inspire as much interest as say, ghosts. At least four in ten Americans believe in ghosts, and it's likely that even fewer people are aware of the LHC. On that note, at least one physicist contends that the LHC has, in fact, disproved the existence of ghosts.

The physicist in question is Brian Cox, an Advanced Fellow of particle physics at the University of Manchester and a popular science communicator in Britain. On a recent broadcast of BBC Radio Four's The Infinite Monkey Cage centered around science and the paranormal, Cox had this to say on the topic:

~snip~

"If we want some sort of pattern that carries information about our living cells to persist then we must specify precisely what medium carries that pattern and how it interacts with the matter particles out of which our bodies are made. We must, in other words, invent an extension to the Standard Model of Particle Physics that has escaped detection at the Large Hadron Collider. That's almost inconceivable at the energy scales typical of the particle interactions in our bodies."

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, who was also on the show, pressed Cox to clarify his statement.

"If I understand what you just declared, you just asserted that CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, disproved the existence of ghosts."

"Yes," Cox replied.

http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2017/02/16/has_the_large_hadron_collider_disproved_the_existence_of_ghosts.html

[Wounded Bear]

1. K & R ...... nt

[longship]

2. Love Brian Cox and Neil deGrasse Tyson.

The Infinite Monkey Cage is damned good, too. Brian Cox and Robin Ince!

[progressoid]

4. I'm going to have to check that out!

[longship]

6. There's a podcast. Point your podcast aggregator to "Infinite Monkey Cage"

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10. I'm listening now!

[Tikki]

3. Brian Cox and Neil deGrasse Tyson.....be still my heart...

SCIENCE RULES!!!!





Tikki

[Dream Girl]

5. I've seen ghosts twice in my life, once at about age nine and again at age 50

Neither was scary in the least, but they were real. I also had an encounter at about age 4. But didn't actually see anything I was actually touched by some kind of spiritual entity on the back of my neck while I was coloring. It was a warm, calming sensation. I immediately ran to ask my mom who was doing laundry in the basement if she had touched me. We were the only two in the house. I wasn't scared and remember it as completely benevolent. I believe in ghosts. I won't begin to understand why this finding with the colider would necessarily disprove the existence of ghosts. They are not a physical entity by definition.

[longship]

7. One can start with the fact that consciousness is what the brain does.

When one dies, the brain stops functioning. The neurological science is really firm on this.

That means no ghosts, no mind-body duality.

Here:

My best to you!

[Dream Girl]

8. Yes the brain stops functioning, but is there a mind that simply uses the brain?

In other words the fact that the brain stops functioning, does not negate the possibility of a soul or spirit. I wouldn't presume to know the answer, but I would not concede that "science" has a complete understanding of consciousness or the reality underlying our existence.

[longship]

9. The mind is what the brain does.

It is really that simple. The science on that is pretty clear.

It's long but I suggest that you view the discussion at the link I posted above. Interesting stuff about the neurology.

Thanks for your response.

[orleans]

11. when i was five or six years old i saw a relative who had passed away

and she scared me because i turned around and she was there when moments before she was not. she looked normal, she was not transparent, and she spoke to me.

i believe our consciousness goes on even if our brain dies.

comments from that thread include:
"Go back and reexamine the double slit experiment."

and a conversation between two posters:
mike:
"Who says a ghost has to be exactly as that physicist described it. Who says it has to "control" our bodies? Perhaps a ghost is merely a reflection of ourselves in one of the infinite "alternate universes" that physicists claim exist? Maybe our souls are made out of dark energy or dark matter, which many scientists also claim exists (but are unable to detect). Just because someone is a scientist doesn't mean they know everything. Dr. Cox is just being an arrogant fool."

alexander:
"Or he is using empirical evidence to simply state that ghosts are fiction and science is fact. But dont let the fact he is a world leading particle physicist get in the way of your crackpot babbling."

mike:
"Alexander Romei look Billy Bob, I'm going to type slowy because I don't imagine your reading comprehension is very high. For starters, for a person to say "Science is fact" is as ignorant a statement as has ever been made. Science is the search for truth. Many alleged scientific so-called "facts" have been disproved. Science is only called "fact" when it becomes politicized.

"Secondly, did he define what a ghost actually is? No he did not. Until someone actually defines what a ghost is, science can't even begin to disprove its existence. I don't believe in ghosts, but I'm also not a fan logical fallacies. This guy's statement was making a prior assumptions about the nature of ghosts which he failed to devulge. If he's going to make an argument, there needs to be baseline of agreement. He failed to provide that baseline.

"Then there's the general notion that the current consensous in "Science" is that the 90 percent of the Universe is made up of stuff (dark matter and dark energy) that we can't directly detect or interact with, but somehow has a strong influence on regular matter. So we have a physicist who works every day with theories that basically state most of the universe is made up of some type of stuff that interacts with regular matter but we can't detect it issuing a statement saying it's impossible for such a thing as a ghost to exist because it interacts with matter and therefore we would have to be able to detect it. He is basically contradicting the theories of dark matter and dark energy because they do exactly what he's saying a ghost couldn't do. Are you following? I don't care if he's a world renown physicist, the flaws in his logic are readily apparent to anyone who wants to consider them."