Really? Care to explain why? I don't mean why you think free will and consciousness are real and unique to humans (or perhaps biological life), I mean...
That's exactly the point I'm making. I'm not saying that our beliefs can either be justified or not (that's an entire epistemological position) I'm di...
So you think it is material to the argument whether a person sees the illusion of purpose as survival, or whether they see it as morphological conform...
That's what I mean about reading my post rather than just picking individual sentences you think you can make an argument about. The 'purpose' I was r...
Yes, I would say so. Universalising the maxim "I should accept any rewards that are offered to me" would certainly create a world where those less mor...
"appear, to human eyes, to be well suited to some 'purpose' we can identify." Please read my posts before responding with such vitriol. I quite clearl...
I'm happy to admit the expression could have been more accurate. I was only trying to convey the fact that a process exists which selects otherwise ra...
That is what I, and I think Janus, have been trying to say. That you must remain silent. That no logical argument can be brought forth for the existen...
Nonetheless, Michael makes a really good point about the effects of internalising these reactions. There's every reason to believe it was that very he...
What I'm asking is what form would your argument for the necessary existence of a creator or the universe actually take? It can't take the form - if.....
I'm only going to try this one more time, it's been an interesting excersice and I thank you for the challenge but I cannot see the sense in us just r...
A caricature and a strawman are two entirely different things. One is a summary of a position that is deliberately facetious but still based on real f...
Reductive explanation is a reason to believe. It is the standard reason we believe in everything else, that we have a reductive explanation for its be...
This just begs the question. They don't seem devoid of meaning to someone who thinks that 'meaning' is a particular brain sate. Then they have 'meanin...
You are misusing the word 'justify'. Justifying a proposition does not require that no other conflicting proposition can possibly be true, it requires...
I was caricaturing the idealist position you prefer for rhetorical effect, you'll see it has no influence whatsoever on my line of argument, which you...
A small detail question first; So how do birds migrate then, if nothing as complex as the desire to journey to a specific other place on the earth for...
Immigrants want to leave the countries they are in because Western trading policies and colonialism have trashed their economies. Did you read the exa...
For someone who is not even certain that the universe really exists outside your own head, you seem to know an awful lot about 'things'. They're finit...
You're confusing 'justified' with 'true'. It is justified that I believe it is 6:40pm, if you look at your (unbeknownst to you) broken clock, it is ju...
I don't give a fuck if it makes you yawn. I'm not here for your entertainment. It is utterly ridiculous to suggest that unless the American system is ...
But how would you demonstrate that a being is necessary in a way that would not also allow you to demonstrate that a 'universe of things' is necessay?...
Right, so if neuroscience demonstrated it to be be 'true' that certain passions were, by biological necessity, present in the brain, how would that no...
It looks like someone acting in such a way as to bring the object of that desire about. If someone acts in such a way as to eat cake, we can can presu...
So if your goal was to be a CEO of your own company perhaps (where as a woman you have about half the chance a man has), or maybe you just want the fr...
What does 'justify' mean to you in this context? I take it to mean 'demonstrate the necessity of', which is something science is entirely capable of d...
This is exactly what I mean by going round in circles. I'm not sure why you think it's true and I'm trying to understand why you think humans don't ha...
No, there is no difference to us, the observer. In order for your position to be tenable, the paper's lack of existence has to make no difference at a...
I understand the distinction you're making I don't understand why. It doesn't matter how many times you keep repeating it it doesn't magically make it...
We're just going round in circles here. Does an elephant desire to raise a child? Yes. If it did not desire to raise a child it would not raise a chil...
You genuinely don't understand the statistics do you. The failure of one subset to match the socioeconomic distribution of the population as a whole m...
Why? For what sound logical reason are you proposing (insisting, in fact) that humans, despite having evolved in exactly the same way as all other ani...
Simple statistics, but if you want me to spell it out for you... The American dream says that if you want to get rich all you have to do is work hard....
35% of the Forbes 400 list were from lower class backgrounds. 95% of the country are in that category. A completely free journey uninfluenced by prior...
Personally, I think you're getting hung up on the story, not the behaviour. We all know that time does not exist in the way we think it does, we all n...
I'm characterising the ethic behind the author's responses. I hope I haven't read too much into it, but they frequently make reference to the treatmen...
That literally all other animals raise young - some in quite complex and long-term ways. How on earth do you think they do this without a desire to do...
No, because we are in competition with other humans and animals, that's the nature of evolution. If all we did was produce children, but another tribe...
I never professed to be baffled by the suggestion that there was any difference at all. What I'm baffled by is your difference. Your suggestion that o...
So, if I'm right, there's two threads to what you're saying. Firstly that we could look at the sample size more favourably if we changed our definitio...
Your characterisation of my position is relatively accurate, with one exception "... the average individual ... must therefore be guided by who happen...
I apologise if my tone had offended you, it was not my intention. I just don't think you can suggest with any authority that the desire to raise child...
Presumably I'm not explaining myself clearly enough. Despite two attempts to explain otherwise, you still seem to be working on the idea that I'm sayi...
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