Dischord: It seems to me, that anyone that doesn't allow for the possibility of anything, including nothing, is closing their mind.
DarrkPhoenix: While it's good to initially be willing to consider new ideas, there comes a time when proponents of an idea have failed so many times to provide any meaningful evidence for their claims that further consideration of the idea just isn't worth the time. Despite the various people claiming to believe in ghosts (and claiming to have seen evidence of them), no one has managed to produce evidence of their existence under controlled, repeatable conditions. After so many claims coming up short when put to the test it eventually comes time to move on.
Dischord: Science is a tool, and not useful for every question.
DarrkPhoenix: The scientific method is the best tool we have for determining how the observable universe behaves. If ghosts exist they are either a part of the observable universe, in which case science is the best tool for learning about them, or they are not part of the observable universe (at least not with the technology we currently have available for observing the universe), in which case speculating about them is about as useful as speculating about Russell's teapot.
Dischord: That the subject of the dogmatism is truth, itself, does little to differentiate it from that of a religion.
DarrkPhoenix: You don't seem to have a particularly good grasp of what science is. It is not "truth" that science is concerned with, but what is observable (and developing predictive theories about the observable universe). Our scientific understanding of what is observable may or may not correspond to the "truth" of what is, but that's for philosophers to speculate about.
Once again you assume that a particular tool is valid, while I do not.
Recipes are valid in the kitchen but have little or nothing to do outside of their domain.
While I agree with most, I do not subscribe to your faith or dogmatism in the process. I find it useful in much, but not all of what is the human experience. I am not getting sloppy here, I just do not want to subscribe to yet another religion.
Prove, tinker away, but do not project that you are the one and all holy grail. You may be, in time, but do not don your coronation gowns prematurely.