"One other point . The beauty of science is that it 's based on repeatable evidence . If I do a nifty experiment I can describe it to you , and you can do it yourself . If you do n't get the same results then my conclusions are suspect . One of the defining characteristics of the supernatural is that it does n't work on demand . So while convincing evidence might appear once , it 's unlikely to appear again . This does n't automatically mean that the supernatural is n't real , or that the original evidence is bogus . It does mean that scientific methods are n't necessarily the right tools to use to judge the supernatural . Science deals with laws , with constants . The supernatural is by definition a bit more flaky ."
"One can not have a controled experiment , as one can in the hard sciences . Psychology , anthropology and other disciplines also do not allow for controlled experiments . However , as with these other fields , one can do a detailed analysis of events that do occur to see if there is a common trend . For example , if people claim to see a supernatural event , take them aside separately to question them about the details . If one can be sure that they did n't get a chance to coordinate the details ahead of time and , nevertheless , the details match , then that would be evidence supporting the supernatural . If this happens consistently , then it would start giving strong support to the existence of a supernatural . Unfortunately , though there are occasional events that remain unexplained , we all know that the great majority of events have not resulted in any conclusive evidence of a supernatural and often they are shown to be simply fraudulent or due to psychological misinterpretation . Since so many of these claims about the supernatural have proven to be dead ends , it is understandable that people should automatically be wary of anyone 's claim toward supernatural proof , which has led to the very subject being essentially taboo in intellectual circles . That is unfortunate . If there actually was a supernatural and did manifest itself , then it might never be discovered because any genuine evidence presented would be automatically ignored because of the taboo . The main challenge is to have the patience to weed through the thousands of bogus claims in the hope of finding something genuine - whether or not that hope ever gets fulfilled ."
"The beauty of science is that it 's based on repeatable evidence ."
"One can not have a controled experiment , as one can in the hard sciences . Psychology , anthropology and other disciplines also do not allow for controlled experiments ."