1. George Scales, War Hero and Generous Friend of RDFRS

Comment #111506 by timothygmd on January 14, 2008 at 9:03 pm

Mr Scales

Thank you for your service and for your support of ideas which enhance our appreciation of the natural world through better comprehension.

Your light helps others to see.

Best wishes

2. Arrogance, dogma and why science - not faith - is the new enemy of reason

Comment #61985 by timothygmd on August 7, 2007 at 6:15 pm

Author unwittingly illustrates why science trumps - it is impossible for humans to see their own "nuttiness". Healing crystal enemas are nutty. So is the magic sky guy. The only difference is from the point of view of a crystal therapist - only the magic sky guy thing is nutty.

Only the reality testing of science can get us useful testable models which will let us function in the real world. It does not pretend to address all "questions of human existence" whatever those are. That was answered by Adams - 42.

Ms Phillips, as an english major you are ill equipped to ponder questions of physics or biology. You are peeing in the community pool of reason and your claim that post modernist nonsense follows from science displays colossal ignorance.

3. Atheists of the world: unite!

Comment #61280 by timothygmd on August 4, 2007 at 12:50 pm

Will do

but have to post here as well - otherwise would be subject to the complaint of excess conformity and being too willing to take direction.

After all, we are more independent minded - comes from having an independent mind. In some respects that cannot be said about the religious.

Thank you BTW for contributing to the education of so many minds. In return, there is now a copy of The God Delusion in the library at the president's hospital in Bethesda MD.

Pity he's never there.

4. Sex, Love, and SSRIs

Comment #31150 by timothygmd on April 11, 2007 at 7:00 am

Was a clinician before radiology....

Often physicians make errors of action rather than inaction. If you want to help, that usually means doing something. A great frusteration of some branches of medicine is that what you can do is limited and that data is incomplete. What you can prove you know is often only a subset of what you think you know. The chance for error rises.

On the other hand, patients most often present with the expectation that something to be done to "fix" the problem at hand.

A symbiotic dance of delusion follows....

5. Orr vs. Dennett/Dawkins

Comment #26983 by timothygmd on March 22, 2007 at 5:49 pm

Ummm, look at his credentials - Orr is a real scientist. He is also more or less on our side.

What he's falling prey to, in my opinion, is a combination of ego (Dawkins book doesn't make the points HE'D like to make) and possibly a bit of envy.

He's not alone. Look at all the fleas jumping on Dawkins back, trying to personally grow big by trying to feed off these discussions and be involved in conflict, one way or another.

One interesting point, though, derived from Orrs criticism, it that god (any god, really) become easier to defend when they are not well or clearly defined. An extreme example is Einstein's god, which is so poorly defined it is not distinguishable from no god at all. The more clearly defined a gods is, the more silly.

Anyone else note a trend ? Maybe we should make some kind of spectrum.

6. Ancient boy's skeleton sparks evolution debate

Comment #21524 by timothygmd on February 9, 2007 at 6:34 pm

Here we have an interesting thread....

DavidJMH and Scooternyc have challenged a "political correctness" with assertions that many would consider racist. More, they have raised the ugly head of eugenics. Darwinians usually don't like their treasured science misused to advocate inhumanity to our fellow humans.

In my opinion, scooternyc was motivated by dislike of religion (which I share) but confused the results of adverse nongenetic behavior with darwinian natural selection.

DavidJMH believes that the endemic social problems of aboriginal peoples are evidence of an evolutionary distinction between a modern us and an anachronistic "them". I believe he is wrong. Although the groups are distinct, the species is human. We're all "us".

The wonderful thing about science is that it bows to neither political correctness nor racism. I look forward to reading this discussion.