Glen,
I think you have nailed one of the origins of science-doubters: the relation
between the nomothetic and the idiographic (which you can google, if you want
to know more). Briefly, there is no strong reason to believe that a
probabilistic generalization applies to my individual case. Wel
On 9/23/15 1:40 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
In practice, the tactic of creating doubt tends to be more about creating fear,
and decreasing the resolve of the opponent, than it is about increasing the
prevalence of skeptical thinking. I think flip-flopping is not that hard of a
skill to master,
What's the risk if the sceptics win? Scepticism is surely the easy way out
on this one.
On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 5:17 PM, Merle Lefkoff
wrote:
> It's NEVER NEVER either/or! Try both/and.
>
> On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 8:10 AM, Gillian Densmore
> wrote:
>
>> Glen (as typical) raises a good questio
It's NEVER NEVER either/or! Try both/and.
On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 8:10 AM, Gillian Densmore
wrote:
> Glen (as typical) raises a good question what the purpose and thrust of
> this forum is.
>
> If you even know.
>
> A few scientists have even said that one of the truly awesome things about
> sc
On 09/23/2015 02:54 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
Persuasion happens between minds. What you are describing is not scalable.
The surgical intervention has to be done on the right people, not individuals
of low conviction. They just fall in line to the right manipulator.
Perhaps I was too op
"There are these somewhat controversial papers that indicate medium-term
fasting (more than 48 hours) assists the therapy in triggering apoptosis (good
cell death that minimizes free toxins) and reducing necrosis (bad cell death
where toxins roam a bit more freely). She maintains that people on
"My claim is the truly powerful do _not_ manipulate in the way you're
describing. They are more surgical in their methods. The power gained by your
coarser manipulation is temporary and fickle. The power gained by steadily
punching holes in convictions is more permanent."
Persuasion happens
On 09/23/2015 02:15 PM, Nick Thompson wrote:
Diet and Heart Disease
Chronic Lyme Disease
Fibromyalgia
Diet and Cancer
Vaccination and autism
and Alzheimer's
Chronic fatigue syndrome
Environmental sensitivity syndrome
First of all, I would like to recruit this list to identify other issues w
On 09/23/2015 02:43 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
The question is not "Should one use doubt to create fear?", the question is "Will
someone use doubt to create fear?" (Someone almost always will.) The crafty campaign
strategist will anticipate the audience experiencing the fear and assess whether
"But both the path of least resistance and the cohesiveness of a social group
depend, in fundamental ways, on a lack of conviction."
The question is not "Should one use doubt to create fear?", the question is
"Will someone use doubt to create fear?" (Someone almost always will.) The
crafty ca
On 09/23/2015 01:46 PM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
People react to the forces in their environment first -- wrong or right -- and
second rationalize them. Create a path of least resistance for the undecided,
and give them arguments to rationalize their decision.For those that are
taking the
Glen,
I want to make a distinction between the discussion at Clark university (which
seems more and more to be directed toward moral chest beating by Global Warming
Enthusiasts, and a discussion that I want to have with you, and others, about
when we (i.e., you, me, and others like us) are led
Right, but meanwhile, a larger consensus is forming that makes racist belief
system increasingly untenable and isolated. Similarly, it was more important
the gay community stick together and create a political/economic force than it
was to persuade social conservatives that a gay lifestyle was
I completely disagree. It seems to me that fear causes people to dig
themselves further into their convictions ... or even to create convictions
that were, up to that point, just tendencies. It's relatively easy to imagine
that's the case with modern racists. Up to the point of being challe
In practice, the tactic of creating doubt tends to be more about creating fear,
and decreasing the resolve of the opponent, than it is about increasing the
prevalence of skeptical thinking. I think flip-flopping is not that hard of a
skill to master, it's whether one wants to devote the needed
On 09/23/2015 11:38 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote:
As long as they can be held in solitary confinement, and prevented from organizing, they
can have all of the "moderation" they want! But if as they have organized,
then those who have seen the consequences of that organization and don't much like
"Defending a subtle concept of faith to this crowd is like arguing for
moderation instead of abstinence at an AA meeting."
As long as they can be held in solitary confinement, and prevented from
organizing, they can have all of the "moderation" they want! But if as they
have organized, then t
Y'all do a good job of highlighting the importance of the context for such a
forum. Here's another time-wasting anecdote:
I spend way too much time trying to make peace with the local atheists. When I go to
their meetings and the topics of faith or the supernatural or mystical come up, I hav
Gil -
I think it takes a certain perspective and maybe training to be a
proper "Skeptic".
I think as far as the Saros thing goes, I can imagine it having an
effect on annual weather patterns with periods relevant to the
periods of the sun/moon/
@Steve
yeah I don't know that a person can stay sane and constantly question what
they do.
The maxim can probably be taken many different ways. Personally I take it
in a playfull, happy-go-lucky kind of way of
Kind of like OOH I wonder how (Coffe for example) works? OOOH it's black
and with a pinch
Gil-
The Saros cycles are fascinating. Of course I always "assumed"
there was such periodicity and wondered if anyone had tried to
correlate these conjunctions with earthly phenomena. I don't see
this undermining the anthropogenic climate change hypothesi
Glen (as typical) raises a good question what the purpose and thrust of
this forum is.
If you even know.
A few scientists have even said that one of the truly awesome things about
science is they "question everything".
And there's been a theory that weather patterns are influenced somewhat by
h
Wikipedia has a article about climate change skeptics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_scientists_opposing_the_mainstream_scientific_assessment_of_global_warming
On Tue, Sep 22, 2015 at 6:34 PM, Nick Thompson
wrote:
> G
>
> Think of Emerson and Thoreau.
>
> N
>
> Nicholas S. Thompson
>
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