Open invitation to Dowsing Dan

[Nolan]

Darth Vader could not only remote view, but he could remote-force-choke.

Woe betide those of us who, unwisely, are not hiding in a cowardly way behind impenetrable aliases.

Updating my alias to “Definitely Not a Rebel Spy.”

[Moksha]

Darth Vader could not only remote-view, but he could remote-force-choke.

That would garner much greater funding from the More Good Foundation.

[drumdude]

Dan posted another regurgitation of his previous blog posts. He mischaracterizes the criticism here and doesn’t engage with any of the points.

1) Dan is unwilling to repeat his dowsing experience in a controlled experiment
2) Dan is willing to take water dowsers at their word that they have a higher success rate than their peers using real technology
3) Dan asserts anyone who is skeptical of such anecdotes must be dogmatically closed minded

Also in the same post he dogmatically asserts that vaccines work, and cutting funding for them is wrong. I don’t know how he is able to be so closed minded to all of the legitimate anti vaccine anecdotes. Doesn’t he know how many parents believe vaccines gave their children autism? They have just as much evidence as Dan does with his water dowsing.

I have to admit it’s a bit tedious having to constantly point out this hypocrisy to DCP.

He accepts vaccines, but also water dowsing. He rejects anti vaccine hysteria but also embraces a completely ahistorical story of Jews sailing to America in 600BC. He has a very freewheeling “a la carte” commitment to valuing logic, reason, and evidence. Which I suppose is the hallmark of a good Mopologist.

[Nolan]

He has a very freewheeling “a la carte” commitment to valuing logic, reason, and evidence. Which I suppose is the hallmark of a good Mopologist.

In fairness, this describes most humans.

[Rivendale]

He has a very freewheeling “a la carte” commitment to valuing logic, reason, and evidence. Which I suppose is the hallmark of a good Mopologist.

In fairness, this describes most humans.

High demand religions tend to warp/break epistemological processes. Yes all humans have varying forms of bias, misinformation and lack of information. However, the blatant use of cafeteria world views tends to be too glaring to ignore.

[drumdude]

In fairness, this describes most humans.

High demand religions tend to warp/break epistemological processes. Yes all humans have varying forms of bias, misinformation and lack of information. However, the blatant use of cafeteria world views tends to be too glaring to ignore.

And to be clear, I don't have a problem with Dan being Mormon. What I want to call out, is his promotion of it and the supernatural in general.

The largest most glaring error he consistently makes is assuming that everything is 50/50. Or at least, that's what he wants you, dear reader, to believe.

The probability of anyone having a real dowsing ability is not 50/50. The probability that Jews sailed to the Americas in 600BC is not 50/50. Those are both much, much less. And I'd just like DCP to be honest and admit that. The Catholic church, when confronted with this, plainly calls them "mysteries of faith." Mormonism doesn't have space for the truth like that.

His Interpreter journal spent weeks on Bayes theorem and he learned absolutely nothing about it. Probably because the "scholars" working for him to produce it completely mangled the whole thing to a ridiculous degree.

[Nolan]

In fairness, this describes most humans.

High demand religions tend to warp/break epistemological processes. Yes all humans have varying forms of bias, misinformation and lack of information. However, the blatant use of cafeteria world views tends to be too glaring to ignore.

What do you mean by “high demand”?

[Everybody Wang Chung]

More bad news for DCP. A professional dowser/spiritualist uses dowsing rods to disprove the Mormon church:

https://youtu.be/aDlQ65wxkbc?t=439

[I Have Questions]

Dan appears to be a strong advocate of confirmation bias. He’s seen water dowsing “work” once with a proponent who knew where the water source was beforehand. Despite successfully locating the general area of a known water source within a small office (I mean, the L Rods could have crossed anywhere within the room and still be deemed to have “found” water), Peterson hasn’t tried again. Despite having a strong reaction to the experience. So why hasn’t Dan tried it again? One can draw one’s own conclusions about that.

Every single controlled experiment of dowsing has shown that trained and untrained dowsers successfully “strike water” at the same rate, and that the rate at which they successfully “strike water” is no more often than common chance. It’s nonsense. Worse, it’s obvious nonsense.

I’d be interested to know just where Dan thinks the dowsing “magic” lies (it can only be in one of two places). Is Dan himself the source of the magic that found the water? Or are the rods the source of the magic that found the water? Which do you believe it is Dan?

[malkie]

Perhaps Dan aspires to the gift of "working with the rod", and is using dowsing to test his abilities.

What was “the gift of Aaron”?
When the revelation in Doctrine and Covenants 8 was first published in the 1833 Book of Commandments, Oliver Cowdery’s gift was described as “the gift of working with the rod” (see “Book of Commandments, 1833,” page 19, josephsmithpapers.org; see also Jeffrey G. Cannon, “Oliver Cowdery’s Gift,” footnote 9, in Revelations in Context, ed. Matthew McBride and James Goldberg [2016], 19, see also history.lds.org). This may have referred to an object that Oliver Cowdery used on occasion, known as a divining rod. However, the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery left no account as to how such a “rod” may have been used. In the 1835 edition of the Doctrine and Covenants, the phrase “the gift of working with the rod” was changed to “the gift of Aaron” (see “Doctrine and Covenants, 1835,” page 161 [section XXXIV, verse 3], josephsmithpapers.org; see also Melvin J. Petersen, “Preparing Early Revelations for Publication,” Ensign, Feb. 1985, 20). This adjustment demonstrates that the central message is the gift of receiving revelation and also the divinely guided power to translate ancient records.

In the Bible we read of “people receiving spiritual manifestations by means of physical objects such as rods, a brass serpent on a pole … , an ephod (a part of the priestly clothing that included two precious stones), and the Urim and Thummim” (Richard E. Turley Jr., Robin S. Jensen, and Mark Ashurst-McGee, “Joseph the Seer,” Ensign, Oct. 2015, 49). Biblical accounts of Moses and his brother Aaron describe their use of rods as instruments and outward manifestations of God’s will and power (see Exodus 4:1–5, 17; 7:9–12; 14:15–18; Numbers 17:1–10). Hence, the phrase “the gift of Aaron” (D&C 8:6) may be a more general way of referring to Oliver’s gift of “working with the rod” as well as confirming the link that the Prophet Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery had with the roles held by Moses and Aaron. After recognizing Oliver’s “gift of Aaron,” the Lord again assured Oliver that the gift of translation would be added to the revelatory gifts he already possessed if he acted in faith and “trifle[d] not” with these sacred gifts (see D&C 8:8–11).

Doctrine and Covenants Student Manual: D&C 8:6–9