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andrewk

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No, look at the function more closely. It cannot address it, because it has no inputs that indicate either the nature of the crime, or who the individ...
April 13, 2017 at 02:12
What a classic, blinkered economist way of analysing things. Look at the input variables. Not one of them has anything to do with feelings, and yet fe...
April 12, 2017 at 22:40
Purgatory? Sure - that's one of very, very many eschatological theories. Won't it be fun finding out which one is more accurate?
April 12, 2017 at 22:21
I think the idea of a single God that presents itself differently to different cultures is an interesting one, and so is the idea of multiple gods. I ...
April 12, 2017 at 11:17
Exactly - it's too much religion, not too much secularism, that - together with the poverty, warfare and general desperation - enables the terrorism. ...
April 12, 2017 at 08:51
This seems to be directly at odds with Vagabond's graph showing that nearly all terrorist acts occur in deeply religious Muslim countries, where one w...
April 12, 2017 at 02:14
My view is that the whole 'possible worlds' idea is dependent on imagination. Although not usually expressed that way, a 'possible world' is in my vie...
April 09, 2017 at 21:43
The number of casualties from which have been far, far, fewer than from issues like the one WhiskeyWhiskers pointed out, and many other tragedies that...
April 09, 2017 at 05:40
Just finished 'Le chair et le sang' (Flesh and Blood) by Francois Mauriac. It was a difficult read, but rewarding towards the end. It captured the amb...
April 09, 2017 at 00:19
(1) You use the words 'This is why', as if the sentence logically follows from what went before it. But it doesn't. The only conclusions that follow f...
April 08, 2017 at 23:31
As a person, or do you detest his writing? The distinction is unusually important with Sartre because I understand he was a difficult person to get on...
April 08, 2017 at 08:14
I think that in general the people who do that categorisation you describe are not going to sneer any less at self-described SBNRs. That is my experie...
April 08, 2017 at 04:56
If you mean the idea that conscience is our knowledge of God's law, then I think you're right, and I think the decline of such ideas is a reason for r...
April 08, 2017 at 04:01
#OklahomaCity 168 killed 680 injured
April 07, 2017 at 22:52
#SandyHook
April 07, 2017 at 22:42
#Vietnam 1,353,000 deaths. Many more injured.
April 07, 2017 at 22:38
Trivialisation is putting a hashtag in place of a rational argument.
April 07, 2017 at 22:35
#Pompeii 10,000-25,000 dead
April 07, 2017 at 22:22
#Atlantis
April 07, 2017 at 22:16
#Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipukakapikimaungahoronukupokaiwhenuakitanatahu
April 07, 2017 at 22:02
#LittleWhinging
April 07, 2017 at 21:58
#WaggaWagga
April 07, 2017 at 21:51
Plus, I forgot to add, she's a practising, moderate Christian, which is a good example of why secular societies benefit from being tolerant of moderat...
April 06, 2017 at 00:36
Suddenly I remembered that one of the foremost, courageous advocates of tolerance and engagement with moderate Muslims, and openness to Syrian refugee...
April 05, 2017 at 23:41
A finer example of Poe's law I never did see.
April 05, 2017 at 03:43
See my comment about careful reading. You've produced three quotes, each of which use the word 'individual', and you have projected onto that that I m...
April 05, 2017 at 01:18
Fair enough. It looks like you and I are using different meanings of 'religion' - one personal and the other communal. Since countless threads on here...
April 05, 2017 at 01:04
You read a book that convinced you of something that you already wanted to believe. How does that amount to an argument that is relevant to anybody el...
April 05, 2017 at 00:02
Why?
April 04, 2017 at 23:57
This claim is often made by Christian apologists, but never credibly substantiated. The arguments made for it are usually circular - eg all the scient...
April 04, 2017 at 22:52
They cannot truthfully say that unless they agree with it. It seems they don't agree with it. So is your complaint simply that the current government ...
April 04, 2017 at 03:58
That's a very vague request. How would you like them to address it? Governments in all countries historically have been very poor at easing people's u...
April 04, 2017 at 02:45
That's not what I want to know. I thought I had been perfectly clear, but apparently not. What I want to know is what public policy you, and others th...
April 04, 2017 at 00:20
It would be silly to call Hirsi Ali's statements 'hate speech', and I regret that some people do that. It makes it difficult to have a constructive di...
April 03, 2017 at 05:22
As for Canada, all I can find is the private members' motion M-103, which was passed this month - see here for a report on it by The Independent. It i...
April 01, 2017 at 00:59
Re whether criticising Islam in the UK is 'a crime': From the UK 'Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2006': 29J Protection of freedom of expression Nothi...
April 01, 2017 at 00:44
No. You are reading it wrong. I did not say that spiritual experiences are conditioned by genes and environment. I said that a person's beliefs are co...
March 30, 2017 at 06:23
Revelation was covered in my very next six words. Why did you leave them out of your quote? Here they are again: 'including, in some cases, spiritual ...
March 30, 2017 at 05:00
No I'm not. One's religious ideas are deeply conditioned by one's psychology, which is in turn conditioned by genes and environment (including, in som...
March 30, 2017 at 01:53
You are using a story that an imaginary Muslim might make a certain claim, as proof of the truth of the claim. If we ask the same Muslim 'Is there lif...
March 29, 2017 at 23:20
I think much of the public controversy about this topic arises from that word 'authentic'. It is typically assumed, without examination, that there is...
March 29, 2017 at 21:08
Now there's something we can agree on X-) Let's not judge people by their superficial religious label at all, but rather by what they actually believe...
March 29, 2017 at 09:59
It's not a no, but to satisfy your nosiness, the answer does happen to be no - although that has no bearing whatsoever on what we are discussing. Now ...
March 28, 2017 at 22:52
Is there any philosophical content to that question, or are you just being nosy? Have you spent significant time in any of those countries yourself?
March 28, 2017 at 22:50
I'm afraid that doesn't give me any greater clarity about what you mean by 'accommodate', or what the question is that you want discussed. At least Ha...
March 28, 2017 at 01:07
Your question is still not comprehensible. What do you mean by accommodate? It sounds to me like you're asking what rights we should withdraw from peo...
March 28, 2017 at 00:29
In: Certainty  — view comment
I don't think we can even have context-based certainty like a short mathematical proof, and even the Cartesian certainty of existence. Because our kno...
March 27, 2017 at 21:52
I am not asking you not to raise it. I am asking you to make it comprehensible. Which rights are you proposing to remove, and from whom?
March 27, 2017 at 21:31
The question is not so much unfair as just incoherent. Exactly which rights are you suggesting should be taken away from these 'groups'? And given the...
March 27, 2017 at 11:17
We could start with the one saying that homosexuals should be killed. Next up might be the admonition for parents to kill their children if disobedien...
March 27, 2017 at 07:34