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Haha, can't believe I actually forgot about that one. I rarely get to argue on the topic of atheism these days. I'm stuck arguing about things like homeopathy, flat Earth, vaccines, acupuncture, and GMOs. The problem with atheism is that the arguments never change. Nothing new has been added...

Hey TD. Nice to see a familiar face! My life is blissfully boring. Nothing to do all day but watch lectures and listen to podcasts, and I love it! Although I've been letting my podcasts drift ever more into comedy/improv shows and away from science. I even spent 171 hours listening to Nerd...

What Einstein demonstrated is that energy is equivalent to mass times speed of light squared. What you have stated is the first law of thermodynamics which is accredited to Antoine Lavoisier and Julius Robert Mayer. None of those people claimed to have proved that we never die. To quote Ben...

I'm reminded of a story of a woman in Texas who was kidnapped and held for 18 years as prisoner in a basement. During this time she was repeatedly raped and beaten, and became pregnant 3 different times. She was forced to give birth and then, years later, to watch her children being raped and...

That was exactly my point. You absolve yourself from having to convince anyone by deciding that we already believe and just don't realize it. How convenient for you that even the people who disagree with you actually agree with you. It must be very comforting. Did you know that you actually...

This is the old "no atheists in foxholes" canard. It's merely a way for believers to self-validate. They can't come up with any convincing evidence or rational arguments, so they simply pretend that you secretly believe and therefore don't really need to be convinced after all. It's a way of...

Wow, sounds like a a lot of work. Next time just get some mosquito dunks. They'll be dead in 48 hours. Of course, that assumes you run beneficials in your res. If you run a sterile rez, use sm-90.

My mother isn't omnipotent. God is said to be all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever present. That means God knew how the world would unfold when he was making it, and had to power to do something about it, but didn't. He could have made it so we are born already knowing the lessons, or he...

When did God start? Using God to explain the beginning of everything doesn't actually explain anything. It simply leaves us with the same question. You've only inserted your concept of God into the mystery without actually solving the mystery.

Actually you don't get to tell atheists what they believe. Not believing in god simply means being unconvinced. If you want to convince people you have to provide actual evidence or cogent reasoning, not simply shame them for something they may or may not believe. Knowing someone is atheist...

I don't know why, but poor quality control would be my guess. When I wrote that I was only going by the anecdotal accounts of the people I talked to, but since then a report came out which tested many popular microbe products, and AN was among the shittiest. The link is somewhere not too far...

That would seem to depend on the goal. If the goal is to survive in a world devoid of technology and collected knowledge, as the world has been for most of our existence, subjectivity would seem to have offered us some advantages. Even in the modern world, science would be severely...

The Future Simulation Postulation™ is a tempting hypothesis because it really only requires one assumption, and once you make that assumption the likelihood that we are in a simulation becomes near certain. However, that one assumption is huge. Occam's razor is not just about counting the...

I don't know how many of you want to take the time to read this, but here's an excerpt from an article written by my partner. It's an attempt to explain cancer to the layperson in a way that makes it simple without "dumbing" it down. IOW, she intended to acknowledge that the average reader is...

"It worked for me!' is not a valid criteria for judging any medical intervention. People say that rubbing a toad on a wart made it go away. People say that drinking lemon juice cured their diabetes. There is no treatment, no matter how silly or implausible, for which we cannot find someone...

I've heard a couple of good podcasts on mindfulness lately from a scientific perspective. You might enjoy them. https://youarenotsosmart.com/2015/10/23/yanss-061-how-to-willfully-alter-your-brains-ability-to-willfully-alter-your-brains-abilities/...

Nope, not an expert at all. Just someone who has been studying skepticism and critical thinking for a few decades now, and who has access to people with advanced degrees. My partner has a MSc in cognitive anthropology from Oxford. So she aims not only to understand how human cognition works...

"Answer by David Chan, MD from UCLA, Stanford oncology fellowship: I believe in treating cancer with anything that works. Show me that something works, and I'll use it. Period. But don't give me a story of how someone's aunt's best friend was told that she had six months to live and was cured...

Whether I missed your point or not, the point I was making is that there is nothing negative or hateful about being skeptical. It's totally legit to point out that there is a difference between something claiming to be scientific and something actually being scientific. And, you don't have to...