Richard Robertson

Genetically inheritable adaptation only works when death is programmed into each species, i.e. when old makes way for the new. I didn’t know or remember about the short lives of octopi, but there must be some selective advantage to their having frequent generations… from what I just read, I surmise that their selection pressures are the need to…[Read more]

Unseen wrote:
Some illusions (e.g., natural camouflage of moths and lizards, for example) operate quite well on very low forms of life that we might think of as having primitive brains but maybe not true minds, but work not so well on higher orders of intelligence.

True, as evolutionary pressures have favored the development of camouflage with or…[Read more]

I’m also increasingly suspicious of the relevance of the term “illusion”. Illusion only exists in thought processes, in brains. Continuing in theme from my previous post, illusions have no relevance in scientific discourse… unless we’re talking specifically in terms of empirical data when trying to measure consciousness, which (btw) is also…[Read more]

Could a counter-question be just as relevant, such as “how real is life”? The only scientific viewpoints I’ve seen on this are just… viewpoints, and philosophical questions that lack empirical data. Regarding standard definitions of life and death, and even the definition of “reality”, I see more opinions than science. Come to think of it, there…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
Should taxpayers be forced to provide these and should producers of these good be forced by law to provide them to all?

Yes, to a more reasonable extent than the the current USA’s system. Other countries are quite happy with their more socialized approach to health care. There will always be deeper, philosophical…[Read more]

TheEncogitationer wrote:
And Islamofascists in the Middle East and the Cartels in South and Central America are the biggest profiteers of Drug Prohibition, just as organized crime in the U.S. was the biggest profiteer of Alcohol Prohibition.

I’m quoting only one example from your post that illustrates how wildly off-topic you can go in order to…[Read more]

_Robert_ wrote:
Even the simplest single celled organisms strive to live and reproduce. Germanium,  silicon, transistors and pocket calculators don’t really do that, do they?

But what is meant by “strive”? How are single celled organisms significantly different from atoms that strive to balance protons in its nucleus vs electrons in its sh…[Read more]

That just looks to me like really long, lame list of rebuttals (and so-called “facts”) that are hardly even worth mentioning.

If I had to pick the lamest one, it might be the last one on that list called BIBLE LITERALISM. So the Discovery Institute’s motive for any work they do is to make Creationism look like science, and they do a really good…[Read more]

I’d like to hear how the next ones turn out. I got too angry and depressed today about how humans can be so cruel or allow cruelty to exist. Meanwhile, I think that telling stories and acting them out is one of the most connecting and redeeming qualities of humans.

Unseen wrote:
The whole problem with the American healthcare system pretty much boils down to middlemen and the profit motive.

I’d add that Americans are not concerned enough about the burden on small and large businesses to foot the bill for health coverage. It’s a very strange kludge to pay for a nation’s universal public health. Even pure…[Read more]