Savant's avatar

Savant

Administrator

Member since

Savant
Most people dont represent all people or all situations, or best wants.

Yeah but this was never about all people, just assuming what a person would want. So most is a good enough proxy. Also most "locked in" patients report being happy, contrary to common intuition.

Savant
that entirely depends on quality of life

Yeah but I addressed that right after the part you're quoting. Most people don't want to kill themselves, even people with cancer. And those that do want to can usually be talked out of it with therapy.

Savant
I bet my 7 year old cousin that died from leukemia wished he had been aborted.

I mean I'd rather just speak in the abstract than use a personal example that could offend you, but generally, I would say that having 7 years of life is preferable to having 0 years of life. I don't think that dying at 7 is preferable to dying at 14, or that dying at 14 is preferable to dying at 21. So by the same token I think being alive for 7 years is better than living for 0. And while I can't speak definitively for other individuals, I think that the vast majority of lives are preferable to nonexistence, hence why most people have an aversion to dying, and why even suicidal people often decide they don't actually want to die after therapy.

Savant

I believe gay men are more likely to do IVF per capita since they can't have biological children otherwise. Yeah they also adopt, but your original post is just making negative generalizations based on stereotypes; obviously if you introduce nuance the whole analysis falls apart.

Savant
he argues that because of a couple of bad predictions by a couple of scientists that long ago means the science behind demography and geology is discredited

He didn't say that about demography or geology. The closest he gets is asking how we know how long oil reserves last, and he's more skeptical about that than I would be, but he's technically right that exact numbers are estimates.

the denial of the current conclusions of the science of demography

He didn't say anything about those current conclusions or even what they are, just that there is enough space for the current population.

a common theme that argues that conservation and the development of alternatives are unnecessary

He didn't say either of those things though; I can see how someone could come to that conclusion but that's really on them for jumping to those assumptions from Malthus and Hubbert being wrong when faux doesn't tell them to jump to those conclusions.

Savant
How about everything.

He's right about Malthus and Hubbard being wrong; that's just history.

trying to discredit the science of demography

He says Malthus was wrong; that's not the same as trying to discredit the science of demography.

his argument against conservation and the development of alternative energy sources

Faux didn't directly argue against those things in this post.

enough oil to meet our growing consumption requirements

Humans are already shifting to renewables as they become more cost-effective; running out of oil isn't the critical bottleneck you are implying.

Savant

The word that makes more sense here is "inerrant." Infallibility is typically used when talking about councils.

where do we get off claiming the Bible's "infallibility?"

Well, the Catholics believe certain councils are infallible, and those councils said that the original written versions of certain books are inerrant, so they would say that everything in the Bible is true minus potential translation errors.


Paul wrote that all scripture is "god-breathed," so a lot of Protestants take that to mean the original meaning of the Bible is inerrant. However, there are technically a range of views on this: (a) traditional belief in biblical inerrancy, (b) "god-breathed" does not mean inerrant, (b) Paul was wrong on that specific point, (c) not everything in the New Testament is scripture in the sense that Paul meant, since he was referring to the OT, or (d) inerrancy only applies to faith and morals but not historical accuracy.


I don't think anyone is really arguing that the translators necessarily did a perfect job. But some would say that the original writings were inerrant when written.

Savant

I actually agree that many amendments are kind of too vague to be useful. Why not pass an amendment saying "only pass good laws" and let justices decide what good laws are? Or why not pass a law saying "only do good things" and let juries decide what good things are? The 9th amendment kind of does this anyway. At that point, just make justices kings. I used to think judges were stretching the constitution for activist purposes; now I feel bad for them having to enforce a poorly worded document.

Savant
Anyone can see it by visiting this website and tapping a button

Yeah, if people request to see offensive posts, we will oblige them. We're not going to protect people from seeing posts that they actively seek out.

Savant

Remy is already marked as offensive. Go to your profile > settings > hide offensive content if you don't want to see his posts/comments.

Savant

I think it may have been the same thing in your case? Maybe Lance didn't join until the second time you did? Or maybe the notification was delayed because of an update or something.

Savant

I guess after a few rounds, whoever is at the top of the leaderboard. No prizes planned, sorry. Was thinking 3 rounds at the start but if more people keep joining we might add a few. The goal is to get people into ultrarated debating.

Savant

You find out the topic when it starts, it will be randomly assigned from the list of ultrarated topics. Can't start it anyway without confirmation from Lancelot though.