tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post5884460826008481717..comments2023-12-21T06:35:36.624-05:00Comments on Recursivity: Another Shameful Shutdown of Free Speech at WaterlooUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger34125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-50832448949047940472013-04-14T03:55:19.399-04:002013-04-14T03:55:19.399-04:00former abortion rights hero
What makes you think ...<i>former abortion rights hero</i><br /><br />What makes you think he was a hero?<br /><br />I suppose you'll be arguing against cosmetic surgery because of Dr. Joseph Berg next, right?Jeffrey Shallithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12763971505497961430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-82027780647138215732013-04-14T02:36:17.034-04:002013-04-14T02:36:17.034-04:00The left's championing of civil liberties ende...<i>The left's championing of civil liberties ended when they realized that dark and sinister power is far more attractive than lofty principles.</i><br /><br />Right. The ACLU and CCLA, for example, are very interested in "dark and sinister power".<br /><br /><i> fascists... Marxist scum ... </i><br /><br />You have absolutely no idea what you're babbling about, do you?Jeffrey Shallithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12763971505497961430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-47075367883561076662013-04-13T22:11:08.369-04:002013-04-13T22:11:08.369-04:00HAH. You actually tried to argue with fascists, an...HAH. You actually tried to argue with fascists, and suck up to them by saying you're on their side. <br /><br />Fool. How pathetic. <br /><br />Lots of people made the same arguments thoughout history as tyrants were stuffing gulags and gas chambers full of victims. <br /><br />Dude, wake up. The left's championing of civil liberties ended when they realized that dark and sinister power is far more attractive than lofty principles. These days, they are just thugs, so you and your bus posters actually constitute a rare and respectable breed. Foolish perhaps, but rare.<br /><br />If and when these Marxist scum get power, they'll cut your throat as quickly as they'll cut mine. If you want to survive in a 4th-generation world that coddles terrorists, pretends communism was OK, and attacks minor flaws in Canada while ignoring tyranny and repression around the world, then you'd better learn to fight. The way to deal with their denial of the right of free speech is the aggressive, even violent if necessary (but only if necessary), defense of it. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-12397438112271634142013-04-13T21:05:41.596-04:002013-04-13T21:05:41.596-04:00Here's a former abortion rights hero having hi...Here's a former abortion rights hero having his day in court....http://healthland.time.com/2013/04/13/dr-kermit-gosnells-abortion-case/<br /><br />I wonder if demonstrators will be shouting down the prosecutors case? Still very few MSM covering the trial. <br /><br />Should the mothers who had the abortions also be charged with a crime?Tom Morannoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-54873518718466716542013-03-25T11:49:05.034-04:002013-03-25T11:49:05.034-04:00Miranda:
I never said I was one of the exceptions...Miranda:<br /><br />I never said I was one of the exceptions.<br /><br />By the way, boring people say boring things all the time.Jeffrey Shallithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12763971505497961430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-23240146855574551902013-03-25T11:40:42.881-04:002013-03-25T11:40:42.881-04:00"Smart people believe stupid things all the t..."Smart people believe stupid things all the time."<br />Good, I'm glad <i>you</i> said that. Of course, you're one of the few exceptions.<br /><br />Also, your head is stuck in the math world. No one was talking about a <i>mathematical</i> series, but a series of <i>events</i> (I Googled to make sure the expression appears frequently on academic sites.)Mirandanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-76418193081566494102013-03-25T00:19:44.125-04:002013-03-25T00:19:44.125-04:00Jeffrey Shallit,
Greetings from the flats between...Jeffrey Shallit,<br /><br />Greetings from the flats between Channing and Dwight. Fiat lux. Wish you were here.phhhtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-74010317520897395912013-03-24T18:31:23.978-04:002013-03-24T18:31:23.978-04:00But many minds greater than yours argued for it
S...<i>But many minds greater than yours argued for it</i><br /><br />So what? Linus Pauling believed vitamin C was a cure-all. Smart people believe stupid things all the time.<br /><br />Jeffrey Shallithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12763971505497961430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-38238385656221265652013-03-24T18:30:24.154-04:002013-03-24T18:30:24.154-04:00If you want to believe in an infinite serious of c...<i>If you want to believe in an infinite serious of caused causes</i><br /><br />It's not a matter of "believing" in them. It's a matter of some people (such as William Lane Craig) thinking they are logically absurd, when they are clearly not. <br /><br />By the way, it's not "serious" or even "serious", but rather "sequence". Laymen frequently make the mistake of confusing "infinite series" with "infinite sequence". The term "infinite series" is usually reserved for an infinite sum like 1 + 1/2 + 1/4 + ...Jeffrey Shallithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12763971505497961430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-79794361536149688612013-03-24T17:17:15.377-04:002013-03-24T17:17:15.377-04:00%$#% I meant to type series.%$#% I meant to type series.Obs.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-80330132759487711712013-03-24T17:16:47.322-04:002013-03-24T17:16:47.322-04:00If you want to believe in an infinite serious of c...If you want to believe in an infinite serious of caused causes, go right ahead.Obs.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-58827014683307506782013-03-24T17:16:14.360-04:002013-03-24T17:16:14.360-04:00"So, your explanation of why there is somethi..."So, your explanation of why there is something is that something else made it? Yeah, that has no logical problems at all. "<br /><br />Anything <i>physical</i>, duh.<br />Fine, don't think that's logical. But many minds greater than yours argued for it. (Aristotle, etc.) Obs.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-77528621088929757912013-03-24T13:17:26.227-04:002013-03-24T13:17:26.227-04:00Obs,
On the contrary, it is YOU who has nothing w...Obs,<br /><br />On the contrary, it is YOU who has nothing with respect to "fine-tuning." You cannot name one single empirical experiment which shows how the alteration of the value of a universal physical constant affects life.<br /><br />I maintain that, like your futile blather about "design," fine-tuning is a notion you can't even define, much less verify. Go ahead, explain how to measure or detect fine-tuning.<br /><br />But you can't. You're all hot air and god-of-the-gaps and personal incredulity and most of all, denial.<br /><br />It is the god-of-the-gaps fallacy which underlies your jibe about why there is anything at all. I don't know why or how there is something rather than nothing, and neither do you. So what? It does not follow that because we don't know, gods did it. Ignorance does not entail the supernatural.phhhtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-78613523546644892212013-03-24T06:09:51.598-04:002013-03-24T06:09:51.598-04:00And even less to explain why there is anything at ...<i>And even less to explain why there is anything at all.</i><br /><br />So, your explanation of why there is something is that something else made it? Yeah, that has no logical problems at all.Jeffrey Shallithttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12763971505497961430noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-49703471184296148412013-03-24T01:13:11.728-04:002013-03-24T01:13:11.728-04:00And you got nothing to account for finetuning exce...And you got nothing to account for finetuning except an unproven multiverse and some wishful thinking. And even less to explain why there is <i>anything</i> at all.Obs.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-37799103063683242752013-03-22T15:34:57.204-04:002013-03-22T15:34:57.204-04:00Obs,
You're just dodging the issues by quibbl...Obs,<br /><br />You're just dodging the issues by quibbling nit-pickery. Of course there are no gods or designers, just as there are no leprechauns, no Harry Potter, no Avengers - but I could be wrong. All you need to show me up, Obs, is even one tiny, teeny piece of empirical evidence for their existence.<br /><br />But you got nothin'. That's why you dodge with your petty, intentional misstep into misunderstanding. It's because you have nothing else.phhhtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-34352129833928228632013-03-22T14:54:02.905-04:002013-03-22T14:54:02.905-04:00"Until then, provisionally, I say there are n..."Until then, <b>provisionally</b>, I say there are no gods."<br /><br />"There aren't any gods, Obs, nor any designers."<br /><br />Now <i>that's</i> what I call quick evolution.Obs.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-77153463332130635252013-03-21T18:21:10.681-04:002013-03-21T18:21:10.681-04:00Obs,
[I]magine a puddle waking up one morning an...Obs,<br /><br /><i><br />[I]magine a puddle waking up one morning and thinking, 'This is an interesting world I find myself in, an interesting hole I find myself in, fits me rather neatly, doesn't it? In fact, it fits me staggeringly well, must have been made to have me in it!' This is such a powerful idea that as the Sun rises in the sky and the air heats up and as, gradually, the puddle gets smaller and smaller, it's still frantically hanging on to the notion that everything's going to be all right, because this World was meant to have him in it, was built to have him in it...<br /><br />-- Richard Dawkins, citing Douglas Adams<br /></i>phhhtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-12955906276914832022013-03-21T18:04:02.214-04:002013-03-21T18:04:02.214-04:00Obs,
I count on my brakes because I have empirica...Obs,<br /><br />I count on my brakes because I have empirical evidence that they will work, namely many years of experience. They've worked every time, so provisionally, I think they'll work again next time. <br /><br />I don't understand your point about alleged fine-tuning. What fine-tuning? How can you speak of fine-tuning as if it were established fact, on the order of reliable brakes? It is not; it is nothing more than interpretive speculation.<br /><br />I say that you argue from personal incredulity because you are unable to believe that things are the way they are without the fingers of gods on the scales.<br /><br />There aren't any gods, Obs, nor any designers. Thunder doesn't mean there must be a Hairy Thunderer. The fact that you "see" design doesn't mean that there must be a designer. Order occurs naturally. No gods are needed. In science, technology, engineering, and math, gods are notoriously superfluous. They only get in the way.phhhtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-29224782147004584562013-03-21T16:28:03.500-04:002013-03-21T16:28:03.500-04:00Until you can come up with an empirically detectab...Until you can come up with an empirically detectable way to show that your car's brakes won't malfunction tomorrow while on the highway, you shouldn't get into your car.<br />I maintain that odds of all the fine-tuning we see in this universe is greater than the odds of your car's brakes failing tomorrow. (Please, don't lecture me about the odds of obtaining certain hands in a deck of cards. I know all that. That argument only works up to a point.)<br />If I suffer from an argument from personal incredulity, then I think you suffer from the opposite, over-credulity, that we humans just "got lucky." That is your final conclusion, isn't it.Obs.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-35828262660404236332013-03-20T12:28:28.858-04:002013-03-20T12:28:28.858-04:00Obs,
You cannot simply "infer" design f...Obs,<br /><br />You cannot simply "infer" design from a vacuum. That looks a lot like "just making it up." You need some tangible facts to basis an inference on - facts which are objective and empirical.<br /><br />If there is no way to objectively detect design, why do you think it exists? Just because you "see" it?<br /><br />But you can "see" that the world is flat. Lots of people can "see" the evil eye, disease-causing demons, etc.<br /><br />I say that the design you see is illusory. It is a mirage. It is an artifact of your need to find evidence for your unsupported belief in the existence of a god - sorry, designer.<br /><br />Until you can come up with an empirically detectable distinction between the designed and the non-designed, until you can detect design empirically, then the Hitchens observation applies: That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence.phhhtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-60984588226972556072013-03-19T21:55:19.099-04:002013-03-19T21:55:19.099-04:00By the way, I respect the way you worded your argu...By the way, I respect the way you worded your argument earlier, about being "provisional" and all that. Can I empirically detect design? Of course not, but who says that's the only way? Ever hear of inferring? Why don't you try answering my two arguments (not in the negative, as you did, but in the positive) and then we can discuss just how "fallacious" the the argument from personal incredulity is?Obs.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-87059165493778025102013-03-19T13:38:07.736-04:002013-03-19T13:38:07.736-04:00Obs,
Why do you believe in a designer of some sor...Obs,<br /><br />Why do you believe in a designer of some sort?<br /><br />Can you say how to empirically detect design? Can you say how to empirically distinguish the designed from the non-designed?<br /><br />No, of course you cannot. Your belief in a designer appears to me to be as unsupported as, and indeed, indistinguishable from, a belief in gods. There is no reason at all to believe in either one.<br /><br />You cite a god-of-the-gaps argument (we don't know how something came from nothing, ergo god). You cite a fine-tuning argument, basically an argument from personal incredulity. Both these modes of argument are deeply fallacious.phhhtnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-123148939477525302013-03-18T18:24:27.318-04:002013-03-18T18:24:27.318-04:00phhht, I don't believe in "gods", bu...phhht, I don't believe in "gods", but I believe in a designer of some sort. A couple of reasons. I've seen Krauss's explanation as to why there is something as opposed to nothing and I find it exceedingly wanting. Second, I think the fine-tuning arguments (the responsible ones, and not the caricatures of them) are really good.Obs.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20067416.post-54550649644493988782013-03-18T18:02:39.644-04:002013-03-18T18:02:39.644-04:00The main reason why my political views have switch...The main reason why my political views have switched from Leftist to Centre is because of stuff like this. The left seem to latch on to an idea as being morally right, I suppose dictated by Utilitarianism, yet fail to see that this form of defining the good is no different that the absolutism of Christian conservatives which they oppose. I suppose the Utilitarianism is coming into play when this group decided that it was in everyone's best interest to not hear Mr. Woodworth speak. Personally, I would rather make that choice myself. I alone decide what is right and good for me. I see the Abortion issue as being one that should be championed by the centre not the left. The argument after all is that abortion is not wrong if the pregnant woman decides it is the right choice for her.<br /><br />Defining the good in this relative way and noticing the fallacy of the Leftist absolutism is what led me to the centre. I used to run a Communist Club on UW campus... oh how things have changed. I strongly feel centrist politics are not explain well enough to our young. I had to discover the fallacy of leftism absolutism for myself after several years engrossed in their politics in the most extreme way. Which is a crying shame as our modern society is based liberty and freedom from absolutism and the tyranny of the majority.Philhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06525149260217843564noreply@blogger.com