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Phi for All last won the day on October 8
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About Phi for All
- Birthday May 13
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Location
CO, USA
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Almost everything
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U of CO/Communications
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51
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Busy married father
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Consultant
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Arguments in favor of disallowing transgender care for minors
Phi for All replied to Night FM's topic in Politics
Reasonable, and this is actually the current process, from what I've read. And here we go, positing that these decisions are made as "blind assumptions", totally negating the admission that case-by-case diagnoses are needed. Make your argument sound reasonable, then accuse the other side of blind assumptions and ridicule the whole process. Lots of hate, lots of misunderstanding, lots of butthurt about people actually trying to be happy in life. -
Kiss the ring, get an armband, keep your guns? It's what Putin and Orban did. Otherwise, you need a full psychiatric evaluation to be licensed in Russia. Kim Jong Un might let some folks hunt (the East Germans used to have government supervised "hunts" for certain agricultural collectives), but as far as I've heard, he doesn't allow guns for protection except in military hands.
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I don't think there can be a balance. You need a weapon to hunt or for target shooting, that's the "sporting" argument. Arguing to have weapons to defend yourself from other citizens or even your own government throws off any balance you might have had. There's no balance when both the police and the citizens are armed. I am curious about how easily the MAGA crowd will give up their guns when TFG asks for them (they've given him everything else he's asked for). You can't be an authoritarian leader with an armed citizenry. All his heroes heavily restrict who can have a gun in their respective countries. Eventually he's going to tell his worshippers that the enemy within might steal their guns and use them on innocents, and it's best if he confiscates them before that happens. He really just wants to protect you, whether you like it or not.
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Why do people say the GOP is really racist and sexist?
Phi for All replied to nec209's topic in Politics
The GOP changed rapidly when TFG and QAnon took the party over. Republicans that had both experience in legislation and some honor wrt PoC and women were shoved to the background. The ones that remain are the scum of the Earth, and I have no doubt they are practicing all the horrible atrocities they claim the liberals are up to. I truly hope each and every one of them are held accountable for the damage they've inflicted on humans in the US. The GOP is looking for more slaves and trad wives, and unless wiser heads can prevail, they're all traitors to the democracy the rest of us are trying to maintain. -
Why do people demand unnecessary evidence for a God?
Phi for All replied to Night FM's topic in Religion
Sorry, but I do. Mathematics uses proofs, and philosophy uses logical proofs, but science uses theory. Theory is the strongest explanation science has, and its strength lies in the fact that explanations can be updated with new evidence as it becomes known, or dropped completely if shown to be false (like phlogiston theory). If you have an "answer" to something, or believe you've "proved" something is "true", you stop looking any further. With theory, you're constantly checking, experimenting, testing, predicting, and strengthening your explanation for a phenomenon, all while trying to remove as much subjective bias as possible. I don't see this as an ignorance issue, but one of definition. I don't need gods to explain anything I experience in this life, and as long as they remain unobservable I can treat them like any supernatural belief. I don't need to view them as impossible in order to deal with them as somehow outside of what we observe in nature. More reasonable is exactly what I'm shooting for. I think it's more reasonable to say "The current absence of evidence makes me skeptical, but I'm always open to listening if you find some" than to say "The absence of evidence proves there are no gods". Nothing prevents you from believing gods don't exist, but I think it's unreasonable to say evidence for gods can't exist. Perhaps I'm just sensitive to being called "hidebound" and "dismissive" when talking about religion. -
I voted against having my society tell us how many children it needed us to have. In fact, JD Vance can go have sex with a couch and I still don't think society should require him to have children by it.
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Why do people say the GOP is really racist and sexist?
Phi for All replied to nec209's topic in Politics
Except it wasn't rhetoric in Palin's case, and most definitely wasn't "much the same type". This type of rhetoric, where you call brilliant people "totally stupid and dumb" without any examples of what you're talking about, is strictly a Republican tactic. Democrats are much more likely to actually do research, whereas Republicans learned from Newt and Rush that you just need to use schoolyard taunts to disparage things you don't like. -
Why do people demand unnecessary evidence for a God?
Phi for All replied to Night FM's topic in Religion
Did anyone suggest differently? Again, science is not about "proving" anything, and even supporting the existence of gods with evidence has failed. In their current forms, all religions that believe in gods are unfalsifiable. But if one of those gods decides to become observable and deal with us physically, your stance tells me there's no point in even listening. While that may well be true, I think it's a bit too hidebound to declare something is impossible when I can just as easily remain skeptical and fall back on "Show me the evidence and I'll keep an open mind". I get the feeling you're trying to distance yourself from a former belief. "I'm sure if I were God..." doesn't sound like you're arguing like it's all trash to you. -
Why do people demand unnecessary evidence for a God?
Phi for All replied to Night FM's topic in Religion
No, I don't. Let me try another example. In the theory of evolution, we observe that animals adapt physically to their environments over generations. Knowing this, it can be predicted that plant life can also adapt to the animals that feed from it, to ensure their own viability and pass their own genes along. And sure enough, we observe that certain birds have adapted curved beaks to fit into curved flowers, and yes, the plants are evolving more of a curve as well. Knowing one thing allows us to make predictions, essentially forecasting future events. I avoid strict beliefs. I don't capitalize gods. Science isn't actually about proof or proving things (that's math and philosophy), so much as it is finding the best supported explanations for various phenomena. Imo, talking about "true nature" and "reality" is subjective and worthless. I prefer beliefs based on trusting the knowledge. I don't use faith or wishful thinking, but I also don't have to deny the existence of things I haven't observed. I don't have to say gods are impossible when I can just as easily wait for one to make a persuasive, reasoned argument. -
Why do people demand unnecessary evidence for a God?
Phi for All replied to Night FM's topic in Religion
Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson used the Big Bang theory to predict the presence of the cosmic microwave background back in 1963, basically saying that if the BBT was correct, the universe would still have residual radiation left over from the expansion event. This is the kind of predictive power I'm talking about. If gods do exist, there could be evidence (other than direct observation, which they all seem to be allergic to) that allows us to piece together a theory about them. IOW, it's a possibility, even if it's not very probable. I don't feel like I have to deny the existence of gods as long as I require evidence of their existence. I'm happy focusing on what I can observe until someone provides some good evidence or testable predictions. -
Why do people say the GOP is really racist and sexist?
Phi for All replied to nec209's topic in Politics
GOP Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee calls Harris a "DEI vice president", implying she is dumb and relies on her gender and ethnicity to get ahead, despite an absolutely brilliant career in law and politics. Rep. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming described Harris as "intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel", despite the evidence to the contrary. Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin claims "Democrats feel they have to stick with her because of her ethnic background", once again signalling racist judgments. Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy described Harris as "totally stupid and dumb", again ignoring her success in both law and politics and targeting her as the GOP version of a typical woman. Seriously, I'm ashamed for you that you could even ask this question. It's like you have your head... in the sand. -
Why do people demand unnecessary evidence for a God?
Phi for All replied to Night FM's topic in Religion
This is primarily a science discussion forum. Clarity and definition are essential. Also, I definitely don't "intentionally demand evidence to provoke a sense of rationality in the minds of people with religious dogmatism, in a way to shut them up, whereas we're also greatly aware that no such evidence can be provided". I don't deny the possibility of a god, just that to date no evidence exists that persuades me enough to use gods (or anything supernatural) as an explanation for anything. I think it's a bit too dogmatic to insist that "no evidence can be provided". Of course evidence of gods can be provided, as long as someone can dig deep enough and make persuasive enough arguments, and as long as this evidence allows us to make predictions and incorporate the rest of the knowledge we trust without violating falsifiability requirements, as scientists we'd have to accept it. You may not believe that evidence exists (I know I don't), but we have nothing to support that stance other than nobody has ever produced any. -
! Moderator Note Who are you accusing of lying, and do you have any evidence of intent? Please don't insert words you don't mean.
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Thank the stars we have more trusted sources than YT! https://europepmc.org/backend/ptpmcrender.fcgi?accid=PMC7867635&blobtype=pdf It seems the numbers have been adjusted by reclassifying certain capillaries as not part of the measurable, active system. Some of the vessels involved in microcirculation are now assessed differently. This isn't a "false fact" or "dogma" as much as it is part of the methodology, further clarifying what defines a blood vessel. Similar to how Pluto got redefined. That it used to be a planet isn't a false fact or dogma.