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Doc Man I think a lot of what you wrote is correct. In fact it proves my point. We don't KNOW. We were taught in school or at home - or elsewhere - what the "teacher" (anyone) thought was true. For whatever reason, we trust the teacher. So we adopt what they told us as true despite the fact that...

Read the threads. So many strong opinions. No, not opinions - let's call them convictions. They are convictions because those that advance them are certain that they are correct and those who disagree are obviously A) stupid sheep or B) evil liars. Frothy said he has two "otherwise...

Personally I worry more about the voting habits of the folks who are convinced that the Earth is 6,000 years old and that the universe was conjured up by a kindly invisible wizard in the sky, than I worry about those who are unaware of the unit conversion from pounds to tons. As far as the...

The children killed in Egypt were killed by the (so called) Lord's Angel of Death. They were not murdered by people. It's hardly accurate, based on the quote, to claim that Bladerunner is advocating the murder of children, today, in our society. He was referring to biblical times and killing...

I don't think it's right or fair to be lambasting a forum member who is not present. It's one thing to engage someone directly, but making up names (other than the made-up names the person made up for themselves), representing their philosophy in your own way, putting words in their mouth - it's...

I would entertain any rational explanation for pretty much anything.

I don't think it's really necessary to explain every variation in every species and their ancestors as well as their descendants - as long as the overall process is accepted and comprehended. Getting from one number of belly scales to another - or exactly detailing all the morphological...

Exactly my point. They hate them anyway - it doesn't matter that they didn't choose their color. Choice is not at the root of their hatred. Probably the same haters, and for the same reasons - something threatens their conception of how things SHOULD be, or the way it USED TO be - in their...

The point of my post is that there really is no debate about choice. It's irrelevant - it's just a handy, clearly phrased question that is easy to take a position on - even though most people have no actual knowledge about it. To prove my point, imagine that definite proof was found that either...

I don't see why the question of choice is that important. Geniuses in science are born with the innate ability to be geniuses - why give them any credit? Maybe murderers are born with a gene to predispose them to be murders - why condemn them? Maybe every single thing we do in our life is not...

If I can take a stab at answering this, I would say that in order for natural selection to occur, the trait in question has to have a genetic component - in other words be transmitted from generation to generation in the genes. There is no such genetic component to homosexuality - at least...

If you blindfolded me and then handed me a legless lizard and a snake of the same length, I would not be able to tell which was which on account of the fact that I'd be unconscious due to the shock of being blindfolded and having you hand me these things. This would be you: Here put this...

Thanks. But now I don't remember exactly what I had changed it to. I've changed it a few times. I know proof was in there someplace, and I do agree that evidence =/= proof. I've gotten to the point - maybe during this thread - where I don't even believe that there is any "proof" about...

Doc Man There are certainly unseen forces that exert huge influences in the physical world without being able to be described, observed, or understood. If I asked you to produce a thing called gravity or magnetism you would have a difficult time of it. You can demonstrate the effect (weight...

I can agree with most of your post Doc Man. And I think that, when it comes to proofs, linguistic precision is absolutely necessary. Ambiguity in the phrasing of the proof invalidates it. For one reason, ambiguity can later be used to claim something other than what was initially stated - to...

Oh no - the hubris is in your thinking that you know the minds of every logician out there.

Ah ok. So that proves it. You say it's empty and that's the proof. Your argument, in effect, is the following: Premise: The bucket is empty. Conclusion: Therefore the bucket is empty. Certainly, in your made up universe, you can say that not only is this bucket empty, but all buckets are...

Do you go flying through intersections without looking for pedestrians or other cars? Do you drink from an unlabeled bottle of fluid because it appears to be milk? I can function in the world, with only partial information. Sometimes our assumptions bite us in the ass but we can't live our lives...

Frothingslosh. Have you ever been shown something that turned out to be not what it appeared? Has it ever happened to you? Have you ever seen a magician produce bouquets of flowers from their empty hand or the ace of spades plucked out of thin air? I have many times. Many other times, where...

I didn't notice when you changed your example from yesterday, when the "proof" consisted of 12 balls, 2 ramps, and 2 buckets. Now it's just zero balls and one bucket. I'm dancing around? So to you, being shown something is proof. For me, it is far from proof. Do I get to examine the bucket...