Terrapin Station

If you're asking why in the sense of looking for a purpose, there is none. The world in general has no purposes.

True, of course.

Yeah, I think that, too. But 3017amen has the common misconception that a trait can't arise unless it's evolutionarily advantageous, so it's important...

Again, that's not at all the case. I think it's interesting for theists to try to argue in support for theism. I don't think it's interesting when the...

No. I'm saying that it doesn't need to have positive or even neutral survival value, and there doesn't have to be a need for it. That doesn't imply th...

Exactly. It strikes me that a lot of it is simply about folks feeling better/more confident and secure about their own view. If they can support it in...

I don't at all buy Bayesian probability, by the way. I only buy frequentist probability, and even that has problems in my view.

So starting with that again, regardless of whether mathematics has survival value, traits are not required to have positive survival value, or necessi...

Nice to see when people are confident enough about the claims they're making that they'll put money behind them.

So one, you're reading "always" like an Aspie. When people write "always" in sentences like that, they're not literally saying that in 100% of cases, ...

So here's this post's first reading comprehension problem: "a belief that science has a Laplacean, strongly deterministic view of the world" Isn't say...

My position was "You can't use a belief that science has a Laplacean, strongly deterministic view of the world as a support for determinism." And I wa...

Again, a reading comprehension problem, as I already addressed this. The sciences do not make an ontological commitment to "what's really the case ont...

For example, you can't experience a view of the Earth from the surface of the Earth, where that's your entire field of vision, and from the moon, wher...

Re the first question, it's just a different experience. There's no way to experience "everything, from every perspective in every regard" because som...

I think our senses normally tell us what (external) reality is actually like, with respect to our senses. So in other words, and for example, it tells...

Not even remotely what I'm doing. Hence, another example of the problem.

Which is why I'm now focusing my posts on pointing out your reading comprehension and reasoning gaffes as they occur. Nope. And here's another reading...

People can claim whatever they want, but it would be settled in the courts. It wouldn't be Trump's decision. Yeah, I didn't read anything about him. A...

Natural rights can be prevented, including legally, but it's seen as morally wrong to prevent them. Legal rights can be prevented--physically, for exa...

Marijuana doesn't talk. Is that what you were looking for?

Because every response of yours is based on not being able to read or reason very well. I'm not going to continually respond to argumentative posts of...

Good argument. Where was the part where anyone said, "Hey, I have a blueprint for how free will works in terms of mechanism," or "Just in case I don't...

This would be another reading comprehension issue on your part. What are you reading the above way?

I'm not only talking about quantum mechanics. Hasn't anyone here actually studied science? Another class of phenomena that haven't been considered det...

If I'm interacting with an Aspie who wants to argue with me, even if it's simply because I have a lot of views that are different than their own views...

The way I read that when I first noticed it was that it amounted to saying, "My belief that god does not exist is epistemically a faith belief." "I ha...

You quoted the passage that starts with this: "(1) SAT is a standardized test . . ." and asked where you said anything to the contrary. The passage th...

So I'm not literally saying above that I'm using a foundationalist approach. You need to be able to not read everything in an overly "literal" and sim...

Haha, overly "literal" again. I quoted the comment in question right above the content of mine we're talking about. That's the whole idea behind quoti...

I address what's an issue as it occurs, and sometimes what's an issue is (due to) someone's personality.

Via conflating my comments about academic achievement and its implications for intelligence (which you're reading overly "literally") with a comment (...

Thanks for being honest about that. It's been fairly obvious on a number of occasions. Sure, and a matter that Aspies have a lot of problems handling ...

Your reading comprehension and reasoning problems evidenced in this post: (1) SAT is a standardized test that's taken on one occasion; it's evaluated ...

What sorts of things would you say constitute "knowing the full breadth," so that one can't know this for suicide, but where it's the sort of thing on...

Again, this suggests that you're an Aspie. Same problem: I'm asking because this is further evidence of your reading comprehension deficiencies. You h...

Are you an Aspie? I'm asking because this is further evidence of your reading comprehension deficiencies. You have a tendency to read everything "as '...

See my SAT score.

Again, what I think it matters is that I think it's immoral to prohibit someone from doing anything they consensually want to do. That's one of the co...

I'm in favor of letting anyone do whatever they consensually want to do, including suicide. Like uncanni I'd not encourage anyone to commit suicide, b...

With Bernie, I can't imagine that a lot of people wouldn't be leery about a president being only about six months shy of 80 years old before he even e...

Actually it's just a rhetorical tactic to avoid sidelining the idea with a bigger dispute that's not what you want to focus on. A pet peeve of mine he...

Why would intent be a problem if the actions it's directed towards are not a problem?

It's not going to be carried out period. Especially not in this term. Things wouldn't even really start rolling until the election is already here. Wh...

Why is the aggressor wrong for being mean if no one should be upset at what the aggressor is doing?

Ah--intensity, etc. of the "mean person," not the person who sees it as mean? I don't think that needs to be "excused" though when the problem lies wi...

?? No. I was saying that there are fears that are intense and persistent but not rational, so we try to fix the fact that people have them rather than...

You suggested intensity and persistence as criteria.

Yeah, in this case it was because he was a political outsider and was being so iconoclastic.

I've explained this before, but I voted for Trump. As I've said many times, I'm a very idiosyncratic sort of libertarian socialist. I can't stand eith...