Why is paranormal phenomena under Science and Mathematics?

Question

Instead of Mythological and Folklore?

Answer 1

According to Yahoo Answers,

"This was added from the request of forum users, and was a much debated location. The thoughts on both were that it belonged in science and mathematics because there are actual scientific testings that go on in this field, however, others felt that it belonged in the social science section because of the lack of proof to be found in it. We kept it where it was since it was still a relatively new category and wanted to get feedback on what types of questions it would receive in this section. We are now going back to discuss if it would be best if it remained or went to the social science category."

Note, I don't agree with Yahoo's rationale here concerning scientific testing. You could do testing using valid scientific methods on data with any hypothesis you want, but that doesn't make the hypothesis itself scientific. This subject gets quite deep, but I'll leave it at that since it's somewhat tangential to your question.

Answer 2

probably because science believes it can answer everything scientifically.

what i mean by that is to prove that there is no God no ghosts no evil spirits.

Answer 3

Because science is a method of inquiry and some people attempt to use that method of inquiry to answer questions about human experiences that are out of the ordinary (paranormal).

I agree with some of the skeptics that this category and parapsychology probably fits better under social science (the study of human experience and abilities).

I also agree that in this particular forum some questions take on a religious, philosophy, and belief system type of questions and answers and how they fit into scientific inquiry is not always readily clear (sometimes giving it some thought can connect them at other times it seems impossible).

However, I do not not believe that mythology and folklore are the same as scientific inquiry (I agree some questions on here would fit into the category but others would not).

So, when let's say theoretical physics is added to mythology and folklore than I agree that paranormal should be added as well.

It would actually be nice to see this as a separate category altogether just like science & mathematics have a category - Metaphysics, Psi, Paranormal (whatever the name) could have it's own category.

I even think the category should include a skeptic section so they would have a place people might find them helpful and they would be more welcome.

Psi

Answer 4

I'll be darned if I know.Sometimes I guess a question comes up that's marginally scientific.Usually it's people wanting to use telekinesis for flying.Sometimes people make up a ghost story or imagine paranormal jibber-jabber.Then "experts"tell them how to handle it.Maybe someones studying this site scientifically.Why seemingly normal people believe the unbelievable?Yeah,that must be it.