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Agent Smith

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To say "Language is no good" is gibberish as language has, by that statement, been blackballed by the skeptic (sawing off branches one sits on, suicid...
September 19, 2022 at 06:13
From an intelligent design, à la William Paley's clock, perspective what can something do that nothing can't? From all the data we've collected, from ...
September 19, 2022 at 05:22
In one video the late Randi makes an interesting remark. He says that one self-proclaimed psychic's hit rates were no better than chance. To llustrate...
September 19, 2022 at 04:49
When there's disagreement, it's best to err on the side of caution. A simple example should get the point across. If you're unsure whether the rustlin...
September 19, 2022 at 04:40
While Feynman's comment suggests any theory/idea based on Quantum Mechanics is a case of obscurum per obscuris, I find it quite fascinating that anyon...
September 19, 2022 at 03:38
The issue boils down to a simple fact: people want tools that can enhance (their abilities) and not replace (them entirely). It's the difference betwe...
September 19, 2022 at 03:25
In: Pantheism  — view comment
:up: Question: Is everything funny? If there's such a thing as black humor (one can make a joke about children dying of starvation and disease) and th...
September 19, 2022 at 03:17
:up:
September 19, 2022 at 03:12
Excelente! That's a plausible explanation for the Buddha's Noble Silence and yet, despite his unwillingness to do so, he had to turn the Dharma Chakra...
September 19, 2022 at 03:11
:smile: Muchas gracias señor!
September 19, 2022 at 02:12
My guess would be that it's a bit of both. There's a moral instinct in every species; I say this because cannibalism isn't exactly popular in the anim...
September 18, 2022 at 16:43
Well true, communication, despite my, what is to me an interesting, argument (not in any way to be construed as tooting my own horn), seems to work. H...
September 18, 2022 at 15:29
We need to study :zip: There are many possibilities to consider; as a novice skeptic, I believe one needs to explore the possibility space on every is...
September 18, 2022 at 12:22
I detect a fallacy in Randi's Challenge. The late Randi's position 1. Psychic P's powers are inexplicable by science \to P's a true psychic. A psychic...
September 18, 2022 at 12:18
Luck's role in your life is inversely proportional to the quality of your plans. :snicker:
September 18, 2022 at 12:00
Superb! Rituals, looks like, hold a personal meaning - it usually involves a meme-plex that imbues it with significance that's usually an accompanimen...
September 18, 2022 at 11:23
How do we make sense of this apparent contradiction? Is it a question of ethics, being pragmatic, calling it as you see it, being honest, perhaps genn...
September 18, 2022 at 11:14
We'll need to work on it mon ami! Clearly anatta translates in English as no self. Do you think this is a mistransaltion of a more nuanced concept of ...
September 18, 2022 at 10:54
Looks like a neo-Luddite is simply opposed to technology, the reason for doing so is irrelevant although having a good one would make the movement tha...
September 18, 2022 at 10:51
My argument speaks for itself, no? The agreement we sometimes encounter has to be a fluke e.g. when we accidentally see the same meaning in words. As ...
September 18, 2022 at 10:27
Please reread my post. The "difference" you said we'll notice is, to my reckoning, covered by inconsistency/consistency, something I said would be one...
September 18, 2022 at 09:52
Is my red the same as your red? We can never know, oui? Of course, if my red is A and your red is B in a consistent way i.e. when we see red, I always...
September 18, 2022 at 09:14
Anatta (no self/Buddhism). How would you resolve the contradiction therein between anatta (Siddhartha Gautama) & cogito ergo sum (René Descartes)?
September 18, 2022 at 08:48
Indeed!
September 18, 2022 at 08:20
All this Sturm und Drang about mind-body dualism, if that is what we're talking about, in my humble opinion, can be chalked up to a simple fact: We mu...
September 18, 2022 at 08:19
Fab!
September 18, 2022 at 08:02
Interesting!
September 18, 2022 at 08:01
Ok!
September 18, 2022 at 07:48
Idealism & solipsism together is a chicken-and-egg situation. Everything depends on the mind to exist + I alone exist. This raises the following conun...
September 17, 2022 at 17:10
Not that I'm a psychologist, but methinks the brain blocks out the pain & evil in the world, locks it all up in a special place, deep in our subconsci...
September 17, 2022 at 16:27
Fear of death (instinct). Always wearing a seat belt (habit). Touching your lucky shirt 3 times every time before you get in your car (ritual).
September 17, 2022 at 13:44
Too bad, eh? Many great thinkers were of ambiguous gender/sex. I just read the Wikipedia entry on Joan D'Arc, patron saint of France; she had to cross...
September 17, 2022 at 11:12
You'll need to look up misanthrophy; according to the Wikipedia page, there are moral arguments that make us not the best group to hang out with.
September 17, 2022 at 11:02
An interesting tale of a medical blunder! Mirrors how trans men feel and how they experience life, but I'm sure all we need to do is swap sex and gend...
September 17, 2022 at 10:16
So, in short, there doesn't seem to be a pattern except what, after reading you, seems to be the misleading one viz. men liking men and women liking w...
September 17, 2022 at 09:53
Those solutions are true for parabolas and yet the line this object traces is a straight line. Can you explain? Please. P. S. I fear I've forgotten th...
September 17, 2022 at 09:09
A man, last I checked, is a set of physical (strong) and mental (dominating) attributes. I've simplified the attributes as they don't seem to matter t...
September 17, 2022 at 08:58
The brain is very complex mon ami! Don't, no, not even for a single moment, assume you know what's going on. Plus, you've committed the divine fallacy...
September 17, 2022 at 08:41
Physically, we're somewhere at the bottom; mentally, we top the list.
September 17, 2022 at 08:08
The Real Meaning of the Gospels: Don't mess with the Romans! :snicker: Jokes aside, people seem to have converged on one word as the nub of Christiani...
September 17, 2022 at 07:56
In: Pantheism  — view comment
Perhaps the notion of sacredness precedes that of god. The former makes sense even without the latter. What do you make of the comedians' stance that ...
September 17, 2022 at 07:32
:lol:
September 17, 2022 at 07:26
Yet, in line with the Buddha's thoughts, we're all alone. The relations we build are, some say, fragile to the point of being mere illusions (the imag...
September 17, 2022 at 07:26
In: Pantheism  — view comment
As @"javi2541997" seems to be aware of, pantheism is probably a both selection - get the best of both worlds - by merging God with the universe. Throu...
September 17, 2022 at 06:58
Gödel? If it is consistent, it is incomplete; if it is complete, it is inconsistent. @"javi2541997" \uparrow
September 17, 2022 at 06:49
:rofl: To be fair she could've been talking about our interplanetary ambitions, moon landing and all that jazz. Frankly speaking, she has a point - al...
September 17, 2022 at 06:48
To me monogamy is about division of responsibility. If it so happens that one person can take care of many, polygamy, polyandry will find a social nic...
September 17, 2022 at 06:39
In: Pantheism  — view comment
:ok:
September 17, 2022 at 06:32
Why? Well, given how math is supposedly an axiomatized system, there can be no issues with the conclusions that follow among which number the irration...
September 17, 2022 at 06:32
:smile: Couldn't there be something wrong with both?
September 17, 2022 at 06:06