I am an atheist and skeptic;so I don't believe in anything paranormal or supernatural. I always reply anyone who comes to me with tales of supernatural occurrences with "show me a video or I won't believe it." Some months ago,a friend of mine who is a theist,showed me a video of an apparently paranormal event that happened in Asaba. In the video,a bulldozer uproots a tree but the tree inexplicably rises back to its original position! The bulldozer uproots the tree for a second time but the defiant tree rises again and assumes its original position amidst shouts of astonishment from people in the background. According to the text in the video,the tree is used by "witches" as their meeting place.
I don't know if it's an old video and if a lot of people have seen it. It may have been debunked or it may have been explained away using science.
I was stumped when my friend showed it to me. I thought hard about it but I couldn't come up with a logical explanation for why the events in the video weren't supernatural. Eventually,I concluded that the video was doctored and my friend and I argued back and forth. When I got home,I was troubled. I would ask for proof whenever I'm told about supernatural events. Here was "proof" but I still wouldn't accept it. I actually dismissed it and claimed it was doctored without any proof!
To my fellow atheists,what do you think of the video and my attitude towards it?
hopefulLandlord,Obinna58,johnydon22,hahn,jonbellion,et al.
OAM4J

That is the nature of a man who has made up his mind.

"Proof" is nothing but an illusion.
Its a mere excuse.

No type of proof can convince you. None
Even if it does, within 24 hours u will be back to your previous state of mind.

There are always proofs to to counter supernatural occurences

the problem is you never encounter any one
you havnt spoken or practice to know if they are true or not
so why would you believe

the easiest way to know if there is a God is to research and experiment

after that,then believe whatever you want to

This was what i did when i was in your shoe(confusion)

the fact is,your mind tells you there are some events in explainable thats need a deeper thought level
above your your plane but you choose to ignore it using hollow knowledge

seun is an example,
he lost the battle of minds reading too much quora

I thought the tree news was later proven to be a hoax?

I understand your predicament but those people you called on,the likes of hopefulandlord will never understand. they will only come up with an irrelevant argument line and leave it half way.guy science argument about the existence of the spiritual is just for academic relevance...you wanted proof all this while and now you got one so its up to you and not opinion of one hopefulandlord.....

hopefulLandlord:
I thought the tree news was later proven to be a hoax?

I said it here he is!!!!.....proven by who?...and you "thought" when will you ever be sure of one thing in your life...?....biko...

Questions to ask:

Where did the event occur?
What was the event?
What season was it?
Which kind of tree is that?
What's the species of the tree?
How strong and firm are the roots?
Does it have very strong tap root system?
Have there been documented cases of difficulty experienced in uprooting such tree?
Wouldn't a chain saw fall the tree?

Ever8054:
I said it here he is!!!!.....proven by who?...and you "thought" when will you ever be sure of one thing in your life...?....biko...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnMqOXXss74

all the witches part are simply embellishments

The video is real, n there is nothing spiritual about it, a large mass of the root is still in the soil, and the root is obviously the strongest part of the tree, that's why it keeps going back to its original position.

Akdegreat:
Questions to ask:

Where did the event occur?
What was the event?
What season was it?
Which kind of tree is that?
What's the species of the tree?
How strong and firm are the roots?
Does it have very strong tap root system?
Have there been documented cases of difficulty experienced in uprooting such tree?
Wouldn't a chain saw fall the tree?

good questions, I think OP dismissing it as edited rather than asking these kinda question simply shows that he fell for a flaw in thought which all humans are prone to

Ever8054:
I said it here he is!!!!.....proven by who?...and you "thought" when will you ever be sure of one thing in your life...?....biko...

He's thinking out loud perhaps, not asserting.

Akdegreat:


He's thinking out loud perhaps, not asserting.

seems he really means business with me judging by his unnecessary aggressive tone

hopefulLandlord:


good questions, I think OP dismissing it as edited rather than asking these kinda question simply shows that he fell for a flaw in thought which all humans are prone to

Yes! Seems he did so while arguing that it was impossible.
Its better to criticize from a perspective of possibility.

That wasn't proof, that was a video.
You witnessing it live is proof.

LargeProfessor:
I am an atheist and skeptic;so I don't believe in anything paranormal or supernatural. I always reply anyone who comes to me with tales of supernatural occurrences with "show me a video or I won't believe it." Some months ago,a friend of mine who is a theist,showed me a video of an apparently paranormal event that happened in Asaba. In the video,a bulldozer uproots a tree but the tree inexplicably rises back to its original position! The bulldozer uproots the tree for a second time but the defiant tree rises again and assumes its original position amidst shouts of astonishment from people in the background. According to the text in the video,the tree is used by "witches" as their meeting place.
I don't know if it's an old video and if a lot of people have seen it. It may have been debunked or it may have been explained away using science.
I was stumped when my friend showed it to me. I thought hard about it but I couldn't come up with a logical explanation for why the events in the video weren't supernatural. Eventually,I concluded that the video was doctored and my friend and I argued back and forth. When I got home,I was troubled. I would ask for proof whenever I'm told about supernatural events. Here was "proof" but I still wouldn't accept it. I actually dismissed it and claimed it was doctored without any proof!
To my fellow atheists,what do you think of the video and my attitude towards it?
hopefulLandlord,Obinna58,johnydon22,hahn,jonbellion,et al.
OAM4J

Don't be a skeptic without being a thinker.
Don't be eager to dismiss paranormal events as hoax, try to understand the principles behind them.
Like it or not, the paranormal exists!!

felixomor:
That is the nature of a man who has made up his mind.

"Proof" is nothing but an illusion.
Its a mere excuse.

No type of proof can convince you. None
Even if it does, within 24 hours u will be back to your previous state of mind.

I'm not like these men. I want God to be real. I desire to live forever in a place of eternal bliss and happiness. I desire compensation in the form of unimaginable,eternal flexing,for all the suffering I have been subjected to in this world. But thinking about the universe rationally and critically has me convinced that none that is going to happen.

hopefulLandlord:
I thought the tree news was later proven to be a hoax?

Was it?

LargeProfessor:
I was stumped when my friend showed it to me. I thought hard about it but I couldn't come up with a logical explanation for why the events in the video weren't supernatural. Eventually,I concluded that the video was doctored and my friend and I argued back and forth. When I got home,I was troubled. I would ask for proof whenever I'm told about supernatural events. Here was "proof" but I still wouldn't accept it. I actually dismissed it and claimed it was doctored without any proof!
To my fellow atheists,what do you think of the video and my attitude towards it?

There is no shame in not having an explanation for every phenomenon that is purported to be supernatural. It’s ok to say “I am not sure about what caused that to happen, but I don’t believe it's anything supernatural”. Then you can list the possibilities without necessarily claiming that a particular one is definitely true. For example, part of the video could have been played in reverse to make it look as if the tree was “fighting back”, or the tree probably just happened to have very strong and elastic roots, which bounced back after being bent. Have you noticed how palm trees bend when there's a very strong wind trying to push them over, and bounce back once the wind stops blowing?

Update: Here’s a YouTube comment explaining it: “Oak trees are among the deep-rooted deciduous trees . They develop strong taproots that penetrate so deep into the earth , that they can reach the ground water. There is no way somebody can uproot a oak tree like that - its not possible at all not even the strongest storm”

Akdegreat:
Questions to ask:

Where did the event occur?
What was the event?
What season was it?
Which kind of tree is that?
What's the species of the tree?
How strong and firm are the roots?
Does it have very strong tap root system?
Have there been documented cases of difficulty experienced in uprooting such tree?
Wouldn't a chain saw fall the tree?

My theist friend wasn't there when the event took place,so asking him all these questions would have made no sense.
You have a point though. These questions are relevant in determining whether or not the events in the video were paranormal. I,for one,knew there was nothing supernatural about that tree 'refusing' to be uprooted,but I couldn't place a finger on why the tree behaved that way as I am not trained in agriculture.

hopefulLandlord:
I thought the tree news was later proven to be a hoax?

Really?

LargeProfessor:

My theist friend wasn't there when the event took place,so asking him all these questions would have made no sense.
You have a point though. These questions are relevant in determining whether or not the events in the video were paranormal. I,for one,knew there was nothing supernatural about that tree 'refusing' to be uprooted,but I couldn't place a finger on why the tree behaved that way as I am not trained in agriculture.

it would've still made sense to ask him those questions regardless of him being an eye witness or not as such questions can sow seed of doubts, these questions can turn the "evidence" on its head and make him unsure of it even if he doesn't admit it in your presence out of ego, he might go home pondering these questions and this can make him start questioning in the same way "other" evidences of supernatural he's been very sure of before then

hopefulLandlord:


it would've still made sense to ask him those questions regardless of him being an eye witness or not as such questions can sow seed of doubts, these questions can turn the "evidence" on its head and make him unsure of it even if he doesn't admit it in your presence out of ego, he might go home pondering these questions and this can make him start questioning in the same way "other" evidences of supernatural he's been very sure of before then

You're right. I really should have asked this questions.

Seun:

There is no shame in not having an explanation for every phenomenon that is purported to be supernatural. It’s ok to say “I am not sure about what caused that to happen, but I don’t believe it's anything supernatural”. Then you can list the possibilities without necessarily claiming that a particular one is definitely true. For example, part of the video could have been played in reverse to make it look as if the tree was “fighting back”, or the tree probably just happened to have very strong and elastic roots, which bounced back after being bent. Have you noticed how palm trees bend when there's a very strong wind trying to push them over, and bounce back once the wind stops blowing?

Update: Here’s a YouTube comment explaining it: “Oak trees are among the deep-rooted deciduous trees . They develop strong taproots that penetrate so deep into the earth , that they can reach the ground water. There is no way somebody can uproot a oak tree like that - its not possible at all not even the strongest storm”

The youtube comment settles it then. I shouldn't have claimed the video was edited.

I saw the video back then and I couldn't watch it half before disregarding it cos I was hoping for a video that will give zero chance to the possibilities of explanation (things that might have triggered it),
though it's just video and couldn't give more of an idea but I clearly saw a springy deep root at the centre of the tree after it has fallen and it could be the real reason why it continued reversing back to it's old position and besides the tree later got down

charliboy654:
The video is real, n there is nothing spiritual about it, a large mass of the root is still in the soil, and the root is obviously the strongest part of the tree, that's why it keeps going back to its original position.

Thank you o. I don begin de fear say everybody brain don fry!

hopefulLandlord:



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnMqOXXss74

all the witches part are simply embellishments

Thanks for the video. If not, I'd have been thinking it was a sort of an unexplainable stuff.
But here, it is evident it wasn't all the roots that were uprooted. So there are still some roots creating a sort of spring effect on the tree, bringing it back upright at each attempt to bring it down.

How is that proof of the supernatural?


The bulldozer was pushing at the top at first.
When it tried from down it didn't go all the way to uproot the tree but when it went all the way against the tree, it gave way.

No proof there, just a tractor driver doing his job....

LargeProfessor:

I'm not like these men. I want God to be real. I desire to live forever in a place of eternal bliss and happiness. I desire compensation in the form of unimaginable,eternal flexing,for all the suffering I have been subjected to in this world. But thinking about the universe rationally and critically has me convinced that none that is going to happen.

Wow, u just spoke my mind, like is as if u we have the same thought.