Phi for All

We are social. We are intelligent. Just enough of each to make us susceptible to a concerted effort to keep us at odds with one another long enough to distract while the dark deeds we'll find out about later can happen. The gloves seem to be off now, the lies are bigger than ever, the global dialogue is focused on extremes like never before. And still I feel it's all to cover up a much larger middle ground of tolerance and cooperation than anyone suspects is there. I think people worldwide are tired of being lied to, but truths seem hollow and untrustworthy and scarce.

I suggest a local shop where they sell ear candling equipment and leeches.

! Moderator Note Our #1 rule is civility. We attack ideas rationally, but try to leave the people who have them out of it. I see no personal attacks. Every comment seems aimed at the topic, not at you personally. If you see any, please use the Report Post feature.

FTW. We've had many posters before who title threads provocatively, always about science being wrong, then point to the number of views as proof they're right. I think most members clicked wondering wtf? That's not good discussion. Like post count, views don't give you data rich enough to develop meaningful information.

! Moderator Note Three four posts promoting a pet idea were split off to the Trash. Please, NEVER interject non-mainstream science into a mainstream discussion. We have a Speculations section for a reason.

This is why I think it will exist in the future. If the leadership is part of the arms profit process, wars will never stop, or won't have as good a chance at never starting.

This is what I mean by corrupting a definition to suit your agenda. Faith has absolutely NOTHING to do with evidence, it's in most all the dictionaries as a form of belief that eschews evidence, doesn't need it at all. Faith is a form of belief that does NOT rely on logical proofs or empirical evidence. With faith, you believe strongly, mostly with your heart and very little with your head. How meaningful is it to discuss this with you when you make up your own definitions for words that already have widely used ones? When will it begin to teach us anything about ourselves, other than our lack of gladness at suffering foolish ideas?

There is a certain mindset that knows science is difficult to understand and requires a great deal of time and resources, and prefers the ease of blind faith. Just write "God did it!" at the top of your final test, turn it in, and start your summer break. This mindset wants science to be based on nothing more than what religion is based on, so it has no special importance and its evidenced arguments have no added validity. I think part of the difference is that when a scientist trusts something that turns out false, he knows there's something else he needs to learn. When you believe something with faith that turns out false, was it because God thought you didn't need to know, or because you didn't have enough faith, or because you didn't wait for God to give guidance, or what?

Using a definition of faith that includes belief in a theory like evolution is fairly worthless to anyone but those like Randolpin who argue for god(s) at any cost. He's consciously doing it, and he's been told before why it doesn't work. I think the incompetence in this case is conscious, repetitive, and actually predictable.

What would you do if you had billions of dollars, and people started talking about not really needing money anymore?

I can't stress the importance of this enough. As men who's intent in daily professional relationships has been innocent and untainted by sexual aggression, we tend to hope other men behave the same, and err on their side far too often. We want the suspected creep to be innocent because we are, and we don't want men to be creepy. Whether the power brings out the creep, or the creep seeks the powerful position from which to be creepy, these types are often in positions they shouldn't have. The creeps show more respect to men, obviously, which can make other men trust them disproportionately. I recommend every man have a sit-down talk with the women closest to them. Ask them about this. You're going to be disgusted, and you're going to be enlightened.

The wealth disparity really skews the picture, doesn't it? You're being judged by a system that values bank accounts over integrity. Thanks for having higher values, thanks for focusing on more than just yourself, and thanks for speaking up about it. I often wonder what would happen if we took most of the money we spend defending ourselves from our fellow humans and spent it instead on fixing the reasons why they might attack us in the first place. This seems to be the exact opposite of this extremist trend, however.

I find it too coincidental that the extreme-right mob mentality seems to favor the establishment of law and order, which also plays right into the hands of those who want to control chaotic situations for profit. Haven't we all remarked recently on how the masses seem to be electing the absolute worst leaders possible for them? In the US, so many poor Trump supporters are rabid for the man who is taking away their healthcare and not replacing it, putting more of a tax burden on them so the wealthy can have more wealth, and removing the regulations that keep their air and water clean.

Please don't fall into the trap of thinking some physical pain has to be manifested in order to hurt someone. http://www.indiewire.com/2017/11/matthew-weiner-louis-ck-harassment-victims-1201895994/ These women were pressured professionally to keep their mouths shut. Their lives were reduced because of the actions of this man.

I stepped in to correct misinformation so your error didn't gain any tacit support. Redefining the word "faith" to force merit on your argument is intellectually dishonest. Have a nice thread.

Another trend has been for the corporate oligarchs to latch onto a populist movement, fund it and take over its message, then warp it to their own agenda, like the Kochs did with the Tea Party. The real winners here are the for-profit entertainment outlets people look to for factual information. Inflammatory events are not only driving wedges between formerly benign segments of our societies, they're driving views and clicks and ad dollars for corporations pretending to shed equal light on all stories.

! Moderator Note OK, thread closed then. Pretty bizzaro.

! Moderator Note There is plenty of science to critique in this thread. Let's keep our attacks aimed at ideas and ignorance, not people.

Fix this part, it's extremely wrong. There is plenty of evidence for gravity, more than enough to trust predictions based on it. Do you really think we only presuppose the math that leads to successful orbits with spacecraft? I think you don't give enough credence to critical analysis, and assume everyone is as rigor-free as you demonstrate yourself to be. The only assumption being made here is that things will continue to function as we've observed them functioning unless something else acts upon them. It's not something we can know, but it doesn't make our predictions any less accurate for all intents and purposes.

From The Salmon of Doubt by Douglas Adams:

In fairness, I don't include these people in my description of "the uber-wealthy who abuse the process for their gain".

Matter can be made denser. It can be squeezed down so far you overcome the degeneracy pressure of electrons. You can mash it all down even further into an ultra-dense substance made only of neutrons. Even further and gravity itself will take over and create a black hole. This is part of the evolution of the universe the Big Bang Theory shows. The whole universe was once an extremely hot, extremely dense and tiny place that expanded and cooled over time I think it's harder to explain in natural terms. I've never come across anything that didn't have a natural explanation. And of course, we know that matter doesn't have to come from nothing. God would need to become observable in a scientifically meaningful manner. Science needs some consistency with which to base predictions on, and no god(s) have been capable of providing that. So far, all gods I've heard about are supernatural. They can change physics and have abilities like omnipotence and omniscience. They don't have to obey the natural laws we observe everything else following. To me, that sounds like pretty wishful thinking. Science is a process for observing and describing the natural world, and it needs to be free of wishes and faith. It needs to be trustworthy and not subject to our desires. Gods are supernatural, and I don't think natural methodology describes them. Perhaps they aren't necessary to science at all....

You don't mind talking about it, do you dave? Put the cookie down.

Writing is a gift you give yourself but allow others to open. Subject is secondary to how interestingly it's described.

Is it "the government", really? Or is it what the uber-wealthy who abuse the process for their gain have done to "the government"? Many governments have fantastic social programs that express how much the represented citizens care about themselves and each other. In Trump's US, it's becoming very clear "they really don't care about us", and are in the process of making themselves wealthier while taking it from the "us" they only claim to care about. Repeal and replace with nothing. It's the Trump modus operandi.