A Tripolation

It's hard to find more hours when you already carry 19 credit hours of upper level physics/mathematics courses, 20 hours at a local drug store, 5 hours doing undergrad research, and then other free hours doing tutoring and essay services. Yes, I have looked at private policies. They are abysmal. I think the cheapest in my area was $549 a month for a healthy 22-year old male that doesn't drink or smoke. I'm really looking forward as to how you're going to analyze my situation to align with your skewed ideologies of private > government.

I suppose I am being a college kid and only having a part time job. But I am not eligible for Medicaid as I checked due to recent medical issues. Under this, I would be forced to have insurance I cannot afford.

While I'm all for making healthcare readily available, this is one part of the AHA that I agree with Scalia about. Why in the world would you levy a tax penalty against people like me that can't afford to take out any kind of healthcare?

I'm fairly certain she's speaking of a "Physician's Assistant" program. Kind of medical doctors but not really.

All you've stated is that we need empiricism and logic to discover the truth about our world. Good job. We agree. Except I call it science.

...do you understand what it means to put quotes around something in the middle of a sentence when it's not spoken word?

I'm still waiting on one discipline of philosophy outside of science/logics that carries any credence at all.

EDIT: Quite honestly, I just want a discipline of psychology philosophy that is able to find the truth of the matter like the scientific method does. I am aware that epistemology allows me to see that science is the best investigative method that we have. But are there any other methods that *aren't* based in the scientific method and empiricism that give us knowledge and truths?

Because we have so few theists here, or the ones that randomly join, to have an intelligent discussion about religion. I would love to speak with wiccans/muslims/catholics on what they believe and why they feel the way they do. But that never happens. It's simply people saying that they are right and science/all-other-religions are wrong. Not really. The Holy Books of the world are the "scientific evidence" of the religion forum. Green Xenon has no verses to back up what he is saying. He is offering conclusions not founded in evidence. So, we can ask him to defend his stance and when he can't, then we say the thread is just him preaching. I don't care if someone has different interpretations than I do. I care if they have wholly unsubstantiated beliefs, preach them, and then run away and hide when questioned on them.

You're right, CaptainPanic. immortal has no idea what he's talking about, or he's from some fringe sect that interprets the clear parts of the Bible in a wildly different way than most. Absolutely not. I suggest you look at the widely secular group "Doctors Without Borders" and see how people can alleviate suffering without begging God for mercy and power to fix things. Angels are God's holy entities. They are agents of light. They are good. God is generally seen as good. The atrocities committed in the OT in the name of God were most likely hateful tribal warlords wanting to justify their slaughter. Satan is seen as bad, but I don't really think that's the case. If he exists, then I think him to be an opposing force to God, one concerned with hedonism and nihilism and self-pleasure above all. Not a guy with a pitchfork that runs around killing babies.

Seriously, man. I know that some of the "statutory rape" laws are biased towards girls (a 19-year old boy sleeps with a 17-year old girl and he's on the sexual predators list for a lifetime? What a joke), but you advocated sexual violence and murder on an innocent party. And what's worse, you said they should get away with it. That is not healthy. That is not safe. You need to speak to a mental health professional about these issues you have on this topic.

Thanks for your reply. So basically, yes unless it's to ponder questions science cannot address? Isn't that called science? Quite honestly, I just want a discipline of psychology that is able to find the truth of the matter like the scientific method does. I am aware that epistemology allows me to see that science is the best investigative method that we have. But are there any other methods that *aren't* based in the scientific method and empiricism that give us knowledge and truths?

It's a crazy conspiracy. What else do you want? A bunch of wannabes that have no actual hacking skill (and knowing how to do a DDoS attack is not hacking, in my opinion) interspersed here and there with actual hackers. They do some good things. But without any organization or leadership, they will soon implode. The world is always in turmoil. It's human nature.

Welcome to SFN. I am a theist, or, more specifically, a Christian. I believe the Bible is a collection of books written by man.

Ignoring your blatant errors for a moment, how would you present a falsifiable model using this hypothesis?

So we need philosophy to ask questions. Agreed. Past this, what's a useful construct of philosophy? Why do you see them as a distraction? Why do you think this? I'm trying to gain an understanding here, and I see many science-types reflecting my opinion that philosophy is rubbish. ydoaPs clearly thinks philosophy is useful. How do you respond to his thoughts?

How is mathematics philosophy?

I often view philosophy as complete rubbish. Mindless mental musing with no goal, direction, or pragmatic capacity. However, upon expressing these views, I'm often immediately attacked with the claims that science cannot exist without philosophy. That we can know nothing without philosophy. The terms epistemology and sopolism are oft thrown around. As someone who understands the power of the scientific method but knows little about "proper philosophy", I may be a tad biased and uninformed in my opinion. So I'd like to ask everyone on SFN: What are your views on the field of philosophy?

Did you watch the video? If it's not fake, it's fairly interesting.

I live in southern Kentucky. Don't try to understand our weather conditions. No one understands them. Just last week within a span of three days, we had tornadoes, snow, and then 70 degree weather. We don't really refer to anything as ranching around here because we see ranches as thousand-acre type operations.

That's accurate to an extent. This is not the case for factory farms. And it is not the case for what happens after you sell your cattle. The heifers typically stay on pasture and just make babies until they die. The bulls are sent to "feed lots". There, they are "speed-fed" grain until they reach an unnatural weight and then are slaughtered. That is the corn I am speaking of. If you research feed lots, you'll find all the information there. Some are quite barbaric. My family only sells to local feed lots that have contracts with big companies. Local places actually treat the cattle with kindness. That's also true, but it is irrelevant. Dairy cows are used to produce milk. They are only sent to slaughter when they are too old to even do that (cheap meat comes from cows like that). Dairy cows probably live the best life. They eat pasture and such. But farmers also have to put out hay and corn to have food for them during the winter, otherwise they'll starve. I lived on a dairy farm until recently. We dedicated around 50 acres, in addition to their regular acreage, to squirrel food away for them during the winter. Think of this act compounded to all different types of cattle all around the world. That is a *lot* of land being used to feed cattle. I'm not good at finding stats. And I don't really trust eggheads and their stats when it comes to farming. If their information was all like what you quoted, it's not a really thorough review of farming practices. And I don't have sources except for my life experience of 22 years on a farm. If you'd like me to clarify anything, I'd be happy to oblige. If that's what he's saying, he's very wrong as well. Some cattle are given the remnants of sweet corn, though that practice isn't common. What you read was probably referring to silage. When we cut silage, our reapers cut down the *whole* plant. Stalk and all. It's not just the ears and stuff like with what people eat. Most beef is from cows that were sent to feed lots to get their weight up, and therein lies the problem. If the world were vegan, all of that land used to grow that corn would be used to grow human crops. There would be more than enough food for everyone (though I'd wager there would still be starvation. We have plenty of food now, thanks to fertilizer and such). That's why I think vegan people are stupid. Are the farmers supposed to let the now-useless cattle graze on their valuable land? Where will they all go? Doesn't make sense to me.

Actually, you're wrong. So many people that discuss this lack the requisite farming experience. I am pro-meat, by the way. If we used the land we use to raise corn for cattle for actual human crop instead, we would have an abundance of food. It's true that humans eat sweet corn and cattle eat another variant, but that's not the discussion here. He is right and you are quite wrong.

I actually see no problem with that. I talk to myself all the time and it helps me organize my thoughts. Multiple-personality disorder is rarely found in a mentally stable person. This is not a fair comparison. Where you got that anything in my message was a personal attack, I'll never know. Active conversion to any ideology is proselytizing. Atheism can be a religion. In this case, you and the OP are both being very religious.

Because it often gives people something more to believe in. It gives them an afterlife to look forward to. And it's threads like these which give strength to the "atheism is a religion" cause. Active attempts at conversion to a certain ideology? Yep. Religion. Congrats. What's wrong with your father believing in something you don't? Provided that they are not extorting money from him or using him, let the man do what he wants with his life.

You apparently can't read. Because Caesar had it minted that way.