tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555199390227912207.post7809989237587864151..comments2024-03-16T05:00:38.826-04:00Comments on Egnorance: P.Z. Myers: Decimation of the black family? Yaaawnnn....mregnorhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11431770851694587832noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555199390227912207.post-30540094923893573292011-07-23T08:52:47.481-04:002011-07-23T08:52:47.481-04:00Matteo,
Provide some evidence that religion isn&#...Matteo,<br /><br />Provide some evidence that religion isn't making things up as it goes along.<br /><br />At best, religion uses deductive reasoning. If the initial premise is true, and each defective step is correct, then the conclusion is true. But only if the initial premise is true, which has to be assumed.<br /><br />Science uses inductive reasoning. At some point there has to be solid objective evidence. This month's 'Scientific American' has an article on the Multiverse, questioning whether it's science. Itscworth reading as to what's science or philosophy.bachfiendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14752055891882312204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555199390227912207.post-45218655568481663812011-07-21T22:23:23.057-04:002011-07-21T22:23:23.057-04:00Science has to use evidence to decide what's t...<em>Science has to use evidence to decide what's true or not, whereas theology just sucks answers out of its fingers and argues by logic how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.</em><br /><br />Please cite some evidence for this assertion.Matteohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05393908406875742989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555199390227912207.post-48287554447418186822011-07-21T05:40:55.020-04:002011-07-21T05:40:55.020-04:00Robert,
Whereas religion is just nonscientific cl...Robert,<br /><br />Whereas religion is just nonscientific claptrap...bachfiendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14752055891882312204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555199390227912207.post-2769830695419044702011-07-20T22:27:43.200-04:002011-07-20T22:27:43.200-04:00Matteo,
So does theology too have no problem what...Matteo,<br /><br />So does theology too have no problem whatsoever explaining absolutely anything. And its opposite. Except science has to use evidence to decide what's true or not, whereas theology just sucks answers out of its fingers and argues by logic how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.bachfiendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14752055891882312204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555199390227912207.post-48376526756015052252011-07-20T22:25:21.041-04:002011-07-20T22:25:21.041-04:00Evolutionary psychology is pseudoscientific claptr...Evolutionary psychology is pseudoscientific claptrap.Robert O'Briennoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555199390227912207.post-34303298678554303242011-07-20T11:48:32.167-04:002011-07-20T11:48:32.167-04:00Evolutionary psychology has no problem whatsoever ...Evolutionary psychology has no problem whatsoever explaining absolutely <em>anything</em>. And its opposite.Matteohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05393908406875742989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555199390227912207.post-59473469673087808212011-07-20T06:44:54.292-04:002011-07-20T06:44:54.292-04:00Michael,
It certainly does, if your comprehension...Michael,<br /><br />It certainly does, if your comprehension of evolutionary biology is still stuck with Darwin's 1859 theory of natural selection. You're just making a straw man argument.<br /><br />Your naive belief in intelligent design is equally silly. ID is just a story too, one for which there isn't the shred of any evidence.<br /><br />In a previous thread, you'd argued that morality had been implanted into all humans by God, and was therefore proof of God's existence, deriding my claim that evolutionary psychology's theory that morality is naturally selected for in human social groups as being just a 'story'.<br /><br />Divinely implanted morality is just as much a story, and one that isn't particularly plausible, because it isn't particularly well embedded in most people.<br /><br />Michael Jones, in his book 'Leningrad', detailing the 872 day siege of Leningrad during WWII, gives lots of cases where the atheist Russians acted with extreme morality and empathy, and the theistic Germans acted with extreme inhuman brutality.<br /><br />I'm not entering into arguments whether Hitler was a Catholic or not. I concede that if he had won the war, then almost certainly no religion besides National Socialism and worship of Hitler would be allowed. But all his generals and his troops were believing Christians. The troops had chaplains in the front lines for pastoral duties. But the Germans had as their policy to destroy Leningrad and its population by siege and starvation. Artillery units had as their targets marked on maps such military targets as schools and hospitals.<br /><br />Evolutionary psychology has no problems explaining how Hitler managed to manipulate the German people to behave with such inhuman brutality in Russia. Through years of propaganda and indoctrination, the German people were taught to regard the Soviets as being outside the group of humans, not deserving of humane or moral treatment.bachfiendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14752055891882312204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555199390227912207.post-91706045953226686842011-07-20T06:19:02.936-04:002011-07-20T06:19:02.936-04:00@bachfiend:
"Being able to tell stories, put...@bachfiend:<br /><br />"Being able to tell stories, putting together series of events together in sequence, allows us to make sense of situations without actually understanding them."<br /><br />Isn't that what Darwin's theory does?Mike Egnornoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555199390227912207.post-86216145196759447482011-07-19T23:25:32.229-04:002011-07-19T23:25:32.229-04:00Michael,
You're just telling a story which fi...Michael,<br /><br />You're just telling a story which fits your beliefs.<br /><br />Duncan Watts in his book 'Everything is Obvious Once You Know the Answer. How Common Sense Fails Us' published this year puts this very clearly.<br /><br />Being able to tell stories, putting together series of events together in sequence, allows us to make sense of situations without actually understanding them.<br /><br />Without too much effort, I can invent stories that make sense of what is being attempted to explain, the breakup of black American families in American ghettos in the '70s and '80s (assuming that it actually happened of course).<br /><br />How about, conscription of young males to fight in Vietnam, biased towards blacks because of a relative lack of exemptions, lead to brutalization of young male blacks and subsequent breakup of families. So it was the result of fighting ill-advised wars.<br /><br />Or another story might be; the oil price shock due to the Arab oil embargo in 1975 led to increased unemployment in poorer predominantly black families, leading to family breakups. So it was the result of America's support of Israel.<br /><br />That's actually assuming that the rate of family breakup in blacks is actually greater than that in whites ...bachfiendhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14752055891882312204noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555199390227912207.post-20301356551018113142011-07-19T20:06:31.966-04:002011-07-19T20:06:31.966-04:00The fact that Myers is, politically speaking, a co...The fact that Myers is, politically speaking, a completely unreflective leftist tool tells you all you need to know about his intellect.Matteohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05393908406875742989noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3555199390227912207.post-15289072699378144632011-07-19T17:29:12.154-04:002011-07-19T17:29:12.154-04:00Here is a joke that fits PZ very nicely.
PZ was q...Here is a joke that fits PZ very nicely.<br /><br />PZ was queued at a rail road crossing in his shinny new Porsche sportscar.<br /><br />The cars before him had stopped as the light just turned amber, but PZ, being a Porsche driver, had to overtake and get across before the lights went red. He had done the route several times and knew that not until around 3 seconds after the light goes red does the safety barrier starts to fall.<br /><br />However, as you might have guessed, given Murphy's Law, PZ didn't make the second safety barrier. So he was left their sitting in his shiny new porsche, listening to the kling kling kling warning of the oncoming train. <br /><br />Apparently, it took PZ awhile to realize he was stuck. But finally he jumped from the car and started to run… STRAIGHT TOWARDS THE ONCOMING TRAIN, waving his arms in an attempt to stop the train and save his sportscar!<br /><br />The car is in better shape than him.Pépéhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00896283600100217146noreply@blogger.com