Recent content by Moridin

This of course ignores the fact that F = ma, E = mc2 and so on are quite precise approximations to reality, rather than an all powerful law controlling the universe. Instead of thinking of scientific laws as controlling reality, you should think of them as precise and general descriptions of...

The main problem with GMO alarmists is that artificial selection of animals or plants is the exact same thing. You cannot reject one practice without also rejecting the other.

That is a very conservative estimation regarding the cost of the war. Nobel Prize laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard professor Linda Bilmes estimate that if you include various hidden costs, it rises to http://threetrilliondollarwar.org/...

Is same sex sexual relations a thorough enough qualifier for non-human animal homosexuality? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6066606.stm http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0722_040722_gayanimal.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homosexuality_in_animals...

He did nothing right by virtue of being George W. Bush. Pretty much any president that listens to his science advisers would support alternative energy projects. But not any president would perform the unwise foreign policies that he enacted.

Again, this is a clearly contradictory statement. If sensory input and perception is a misleading and wrong description of reality, then you have no reason whatsoever to take part in a rational discussion. If you know that you are not reading the words that I actually wrote, but misleading and...

This statement will obviously be filled by my prejudices and biases, but it seems to me that viewing consciousness or cognition as an all-or-nothing proposition that applies to only to humans is terribly anthropocentric and extra-natural. It also seems reasonable to hold that other organisms can...

This is very similar to my position. There are many, many hilarious misuses of physics (and other sciences) in movies. Getting knocked back by getting shot by a pistol, cars blowing up when you hit the gas tank etc. One question I think is worth exploring is exactly how many sins against...

Yeah, scientific methodologies did not exist prior to 1934. :-p I would suggest "A Historical Introduction to the Philosophy of Science", 4th ed., John Losee, Oxford University Press, 2001, or equivalent.

Just because it is natural, that is, occurs frequently in nature, does not mean it is morally good; infanticide occurs frequently in nature, yet you would hardly argue that is morally good. The same criticism applies to the other side, of course. Just because something does not occur frequently...

This is clearly incorrect. The position that the Earth is spherical-like was reached by the evidence of the senses. What you are opposing are hasty conclusions regarding the evidence of the senses, rather than an attack on the validity of the senses. Further, you are instantly faced by a large...

Maybe if you think of cognition as gradual, rather than an all-or-nothing property, these sorts of reasoning might become clearer.

There are, arguable, perfectly tenable non dual explanations for all of those points. For instance, Dennett denies qualia, rejects any notion of a Cartesian theater (leads to an infinite regress), holds that cognition is an emergent property, does not agree that cognition is non-computational...

The entire quantum mechanical appeal is ultimately irrelevant to the question of free will for two reasons - the quantum mechanical effects that occur in human brains undoubtedly will appear in the brain of rats, but this does not mean that rats have freedom? Furthermore, if your actions where...

I did, in the very first post I made in this topic.