Then seems like a bad time for Trump to be cutting taxes, wouldn't you say?The coffers are empty — ArguingWAristotleTiff
The fallacy here is a bit like saying that we should doubt that the Black Death occurred because no single skeleton we ever found from 14th century Western Europe shows signs of a drastic population decline. Evolution is a phenomenon which occurs in populations, not individuals. No one fossil (whether or not from a "transitional organism") tells the full story of evolution. The picture only emerges when we put the accumulated fossils into a proper context.2. When you look at the about 50 million fossils we have not one has evidence of evolution. So why should we believe that getting more fossils well prove otherwise.(this is 80% of his presentation) — hachit
I think it's still widely accepted, though, that the vapors are the primary cause of swooning and of female hysteria.The miasma theory of disease, for instance, remained stuck in the brains of medical doctors for decades after it was obvious that something other than vapors caused disease — Bitter Crank
Indeed. Even when examining individual cells which are genetically identical, there can be marked differences in their behaviors and fates, never mind entire multicellular organisms.Genetics aren't the only determinant of an organism. Not only environment plays a factor, too, but genetics are not expressed in some exact, clockwork manner. There are countless ways in which genetic expression varies--and after all, if that weren't possible, genetic mutation wouldn't be possible, and evolution couldn't work. — Terrapin Station
Except that it's not as if, for instance, the Chinese do not perform science as we know it in the West. When they launch a space probe, they presumably rely upon the same equations as does NASA. There is no "Chinese physics," any more than there is a "Jewish physics," as someone once fulminated. The fact that the modern scientific method arose relatively recently in the West (let us semi-arbitrarily say in the 16th century), it doesn't follow that there's something essentially Eurocentric about the entire affair.The argument of science or the scientific method being Eurocentric becomes very odd. — ssu
Fair enough, then.if you were to ask me if science proves anything, I'd emphatically say "No." — Terrapin Station
So, the rightness or wrongness does seem to be rather salient, wouldn't you say?It is per the widespread consensus in the sciences for well over a century. — Terrapin Station
I know that it's not the primary focus of this thread, but a consequence of this view of causation is that there could be no first cause/first event, because, by definition of "first," it could not have been preceded by any antecedent causes. And this would imply that the universe is infinitely old.An intuitive belief about causation is that for every event that occurs, there is a cause for that event's existence — Walter Pound
I still hear claims that organisms reproduce "for the good of the species" or similar utterances, which is pretty amazingly wrong. Organisms reproduce for the sake of their genes, a selection process which sometimes even bumps up against the genetic interests of of their own offspring (and siblings, to say nothing of their unrelated conspecifics).It sure is. One of the more disturbing instances of antagonistic evolution is the struggle between the mother and the offspring. The (future) offspring wants to suck in as many nutrients as it can, grow as big as it can, but the mother wants to ration her considerable investment of resources more prudently, so that she has more chances to reproduce (starting with surviving the childbirth). It's hard to wrap your mind around the fact that this struggle takes place inside one and the same organism! — SophistiCat
Would you consider, say, quantum computing to be "new" enough to constitute a genuine novelty, and not merely a refinement of something which came before?Yes.I'm glad you agree. Not the end of the increase in knowledge, but past the peak. The internal combustion engine dates from just before 1800, 220 years later, we have improved on it a good deal; likewise the electric motor, 1830s. Jet engine and rocket engine, 1940s and since then - improvements, but no new engines. — unenlightened
No. I assumed that the linebacker in question was a biological male, as virtually all high school football programs are exclusively male.Are you imagining gender-neutralized football? — frank
Why not? There are 300 lb women, are there not? Why couldn't a 300 lb linebacker suffer from gender dysmorphia?Consider a high school senior who is a 300 lb linebacker. I don't think anyone wonders what this student's gender is. — frank
Oh, sweet baby Jesus. Please condemn this unholy abomination to the pits of Hell.it must of been created — Devans99
Is it somehow more noble to work 20 or 60 hours per week?Mad people are those who go blindly through life, working 40 hours a week in some menial job, fully invested into this 'life' of materiality. So much so, that no question of enigma remains, no hint of awe. These great swathes of dull, anaesthetised people who live as if they are already dead. That is mad. It is not knowledge they possess, but a dangerous forbidding of knowledge. — emancipate