651. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #164916 by MaxD on April 20, 2008 at 8:53 pm

Kardashovel is getting testy!

Contrary to your smarmy assertion that I have conceded the point, time does not care why the ends were moving so quickly relative to each other but only that they do so.

652. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #164906 by MaxD on April 20, 2008 at 8:40 pm

Bonzai,
I don't think that gene selection is an example of an influential dogma. Rather Sloan still has a lot of work ahead of him. I certainly remain unconvinced of the notion, simply because as described I don't think it distiguishable from stochastic processes. Time will tell if SWilson's model will bear research fruit.

Christopher Davis,
Don't sell yourself so short. I'm just stating what I think are some difficulties for any biological group related theories of evolution. I'm not saying it isn't possible. I just think that as yet there is no serious demonstration of such processes. When speaking of cultural strategies then the process becomes more likely. Here culturally transmitted tricks of survival may indeed outperform other groups so a trick will be adopted and spread, or non conformers would fade away.

653. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #164878 by MaxD on April 20, 2008 at 7:19 pm

Diacanu,
Do you forget the great wisdom from Conan, when he was asked what is best in life?
"To crush your enemies before you,
to see them driven before you,
and to hear the lamentation of their women."

Hopefully that will help you see the light about competition.

654. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #164875 by MaxD on April 20, 2008 at 7:15 pm

Steve Zara made my day with ESS (evolutionary stable strategies). I think what Christopher Davis may be talking about is culture because it certainly doesn't fit a workable model of evolutionary change that I know of.

655. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #164866 by MaxD on April 20, 2008 at 7:06 pm

Krauss's The Physics of Star Trek is a wonderful bit of fun. I'm glad to see it mentioned here. I would also like to recommend The Physics of Superheros by James Kaiklios. That too is an interesting window into physics and fiction. Fun stuff.

656. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #164835 by MaxD on April 20, 2008 at 6:27 pm

Christopher Davis,
You'll have to demonstrate how that would work at the genetic level which is the only way it can be justified as biological evolution.

It seems to me that empathy, and compassion can arise just fine in terms of individual level selection. And clearly we needn't venture very far mentally to see out this works out in parent offspring interactions. Sometimes individuals, and the genes that code for the beneficial phenotypes, can reap great rewards for helping out a fellow with a long memory.

657. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #164826 by MaxD on April 20, 2008 at 6:16 pm

Hmmmm,
You must further realize that evolutionary processes are not doing anything for the species or even the individual. They are simply changing gene frequencies from one generation to the next. Of course that will have an effect on the phenotypes produced. So thinking in terms of adaptations that are "for the good of the species" is likely to produce a certain amount of confusion.

658. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #164817 by MaxD on April 20, 2008 at 6:09 pm

Hmmmmmm
There actually is quite a deal of convergence. But different researchers will be led to set their outgroup (This is the group to which you think a group is closely related but that will give you-if your initial research is good, a sound way to compare the group you are interested in) differently. I did a bit of work as an undergrad trying to work out the phylogenetics of the Corvidae (the crows, jays and the magpies). I compared the traditional corvidae with two different out groups. Hermit Thrush and, what I hoped was a much closer relative, the Carolina chickadee. In both cases my relationships stayed the same, and the novelities, I discovered remained.

The big key is outgroup selection (about which we can quibble as researchers) and the number of base pairs which should be large, those base pairs ought to come from a gene that is highly conserved (that is that doesn't exhibit for reasons of functionality lots of random change). The reason is very simple. If I just compare say 10 base pairs from a gene for eye color whatever results I get aren't goint to be terribly meaningful. Maybe there is a lot of change in this part of the sequence. Am I looking at junk DNA? Who knows you are just looking at 10 bps anyway, on a gene that fluctuates randomly without much selective penalty.

Outgroup selection is important too. If had done my bp comparisson using an aligator as my out group, all the members of the Corvidae would look much tighter than they might be. Or what if I used a squid as my out group? You see how that could throw things off. In my case I based my two out group comparissons on anatomical clues, and literature research. I picked two out groups from the the same order Passeriformes because I wanted to see if my initial assumptions were justified. If I got a different cladogram with the Hermit thrush then perhaps I would be back at the drawing board.

My cladogram though conformed, in large part to cladograms predicted on morphology alone. My novel results came from the genus Persoreus and a long suspected paraphylly in Corvus. (For anyone interested, my analysis suggests that the Gray Jay and the Siberian Jay are not likely as closely related as was once thought, and their similarities stem largely from convergence, though both seem to belong rather firmly in the Corvidae.)

659. Open Letter to a victim of Ben Stein's lying propaganda

Comment #164804 by MaxD on April 20, 2008 at 5:51 pm

I think Diacanu said it best.
I join him in his eyeroll

660. Interviews with Richard Dawkins and Michael Shermer

Comment #164733 by MaxD on April 20, 2008 at 4:17 pm

Shermer's line about needing to get to work and Ben Stein needed to hurry up made my day. "Come on man, I've got stuff to do!"

I've disliked Ben Stein ever since his hissy fit at Margaret Cho during the MTV coverage of the election in 2000 I think it was.

661. School bars same-sex partners at formals

Comment #162184 by MaxD on April 16, 2008 at 9:34 am

Hope I am not one of the people of whom you despair.

662. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #162166 by MaxD on April 16, 2008 at 9:01 am

I wasn't sweating it. I was hoping for my fun youtube clip in June is all.

663. School bars same-sex partners at formals

Comment #162165 by MaxD on April 16, 2008 at 8:58 am

Sargeist said:

The opposition to male homosexuality seems to be entirely based on the "ickiness" factor. While I was at university the LGB society set up some stalls the Student Union with some posters saying that a fair proportion of gay men do not indulge in anal sex. I was left thinking that as a way of making people accept people for who they are, this wasn't really very useful: "Look, we're ok really, cos not all of us are doing those icky things. [but if we were, then it'd be fine for you to hate us?]"

664. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #162160 by MaxD on April 16, 2008 at 8:45 am

Reading a bit through the post,
I the discussion of lying, is a nice wed to the discussion of Iranian Vice-cops.
He found himself in a position in which lying was the only way to go!

Or he was really praying. maybe he read about the nakedness with young women from Ghandi.

665. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #162159 by MaxD on April 16, 2008 at 8:42 am

Al,
I think you missed my question.
Did strength ever return?

666. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #162137 by MaxD on April 16, 2008 at 8:13 am

Hey Al-rawandi!
Did our angry IDF, from minnessota every return?

667. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #162122 by MaxD on April 16, 2008 at 7:44 am

Here is one of the grosser (a word?) mischaracterizations by the good and gentle wee-flea.

I found your comments about a 'clear thinking, clear feeling, clear being oasis' interesting. Firstly I do not agree that RD net is clear thinking. In fact in general it is very confused and muddled thinking which seems to be largely driven by emotion and feeling and also a kind of 'in group' mentality. If you do not 'believe' you do not 'belong'. It is in other words an alternative religious philosophy. Jesus had a great thing to say about that - you shall know them by their fruits. I believe that despite all the abuses of religion, despite the hypocrisies of so many of us Christians, the Good News of Jesus Christ provides the clear thinking/feeling/being which you are looking for.

668. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #162115 by MaxD on April 16, 2008 at 7:25 am

You can almost see, embedded in everything RM says why he won't last long in the faith community. He can't help the little slams of the religion. Note in this passage, highlighted by the beneficient Quetz, and again by me,

thank you for having shown me the limits of materialism and "rational thinking". I will happily continue to use these for driving to work, preparing a cassoulet and being operated on for my hernia.
But for the essential, for that which gives freedom, I shall henceforth be looking elsewhere.

669. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161658 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 1:32 pm

Steve Zara's post above prompted this literary sillyness from me
The lion did roar, and all who heard, did tremble even unto their smalles toes.

670. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161652 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 1:26 pm

Seeker,
The universe as we know it at least didn't exist 50 billion years ago.

671. School bars same-sex partners at formals

Comment #161635 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 1:14 pm

Mitchell Gilks said:

This is just a reason why religiously based schools need to die a quiet death.

672. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161625 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 1:08 pm

Frankus,
Now, you drift into the "Not my cotton" argument!

673. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161611 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 12:57 pm

Al-rawandi
I don't think you are going to get a lot of takers on that concept of purity!
But comfy cotton undies? A good start!

674. School bars same-sex partners at formals

Comment #161606 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 12:54 pm

AlexMZK said:

i believe what the Bible says is that gay couples should not sleep together. there is apparently no Biblical condemnation of dancing.

675. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161602 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 12:49 pm

Dune I am with you on. Amazing book. After I read it I wanted to be a planetary ecologist! However I have yet to pick up Chapterhouse because I am so finicky about the delivery platform of my fiction. ANd sometimes Herbert is just too clunky.

676. School bars same-sex partners at formals

Comment #161598 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 12:43 pm

We love all our [gay] students as we do all people in our churches but their lifestyle is not encouraged, particularly if it was a promiscuous lifestyle. We are dealing with young people here.

677. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161589 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 12:33 pm

Navyjake,
Well I am interested to hear your concept of purity.

I am curious to know about about why you stopped being an atheist.

678. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161574 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 12:16 pm

Diacanu
The notion my inlaws had about purity was very problematic for the early years of the relationship I have with the woman that became, and remains my wife.

Purity is a concept that is used to control. I have to totally agree.

679. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161564 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 12:10 pm

If I find gold, I am high on the purity! The more pure the better. If I am drinking alcohol I don't want high purity. I like Guinness.
Beyond that I think you are going to have to go ahead and spring your trap :)

680. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161555 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 12:05 pm

SeekerofTruth said:

Anyone here who thinks they know anything for sure is just a used car salesman.

681. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161551 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 12:01 pm

Al I do that too, but I look for the fresh stuff in my price range.

682. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161546 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 11:56 am

I of course do look for good produce. But I don't think much of the concept of purity as the religious often understand it.

683. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161543 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 11:49 am

NavyJake,
Said:

For every person you point out, I can easily point out the flaws (LBJ's "Great Society" vision is also seen by others as a great "Boondoggle" for all the damage done. How about the less than honest presentation of the "Gulf of Tonkin" incident by LBJ that widened the Vietnam War?).

Let me ask you this: Do you believe in Right and Wrong

684. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161535 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 11:33 am

Black Wolf, that made my day.

Al-rawandi,
You and I are smelling the same thing I think.
And man it is terribly noisome.

Diacanu seems to know how it is prepared. Hopefully he knows how to prepare an antidote.

685. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161533 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 11:28 am

Navyjake,
I fully do support your freedom to say whatever you need to say.

I have to ask what you mean by heart though because often when talking about things like this wheels get spun and spun because people are talking about different things.

In any case if you think that inner character can be adequately adjudicated on the basis of a few explicatives than I must respectfully disagree.
LBJ was one of the most foul mouthed presidents we've ever had, yet he possessed enough integrity to "lose the south for a generation" over civil rights.

Joe Frazier was a fairly foul mouthed boxer, but had more heart than almost anyone of his generation. And more integrity to boot.
Quinton Rampage Jackson, now a UFC fighter was a famously foul mouthed fighter before finding jesus, and more consistently successful in Pride during his foul mouthed days.
Most of my friends are pretty foul mouthed but give to various charitable causes both time and money.
Hitch drops a few f-bombs now and then, but I think he has heart. He is certianly brave.

I could probably do this all day. So what do you mean by heart?

686. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161527 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 11:18 am

So you aren't really a member of the IDF? Disappointing.
I've long thought Krav Maga wasn't effective and was hoping to see how my BJJ/MMA stacked up against the famed Israeli Krav Maga.
Ah well....

687. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161523 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 11:16 am

Strength do you have anything interesting to say?

688. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161519 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 11:14 am

I think the AFH is certainly an art form. But I don't mind the use of harsh language to underline a point, even a serious one.
Hitchens use of such technique is brilliant,
"At least you can fucking die and get out of North Korea."

But the AFH is dangerous, double edged to be sure.

689. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161511 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 11:02 am

Strength
Sorry you dislike the freedom of speech thing we have going on here. It is a common beef the religious have. Tipping over sacred cows and all that.

690. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161507 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 10:58 am

I'm not sure the weak heart, filthy mouth thing really follows.
You will have to define heart I think.

691. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161503 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 10:57 am

Al-rawandi said...well I just can't repeat it.
It was so.....
just....
ouch.

692. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161498 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 10:53 am

Strength I will be at the Hoosier Open in June.
Look me up.

How exactly did God sustain you through all those pogroms? The holocaust?
Just curious.

693. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161478 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 10:36 am

Navyjake,
How is Epeeist's heart weak?

694. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161475 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 10:31 am

Karda said:

I have observed that many atheists think that every conversation about the supernatural should involve a proffer of evidence.

695. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161454 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 10:03 am

Phillip1978,
If you think Strength is angry,
see this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXakslVYAh0&feature=related
This guy is off the fucking chains!

696. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161440 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 9:50 am

Kardashovel,
The reincarnation thing has not really played out successfully the last time I looked at it a few years ago. For a few years I dabbled in the New Agey business, mostly during high school, and for a about a year afterwards. So I had an interest.

I think Sam Harris has backed off the idea he posed in End of Faith somewhat. I can only suppose his experience of people like Michael Shermer, and others helped him find more info on the topic of reincarnation. I'm not saying it is a played out hyposthesis (like say creationism) but it has all its work still ahead of it as Hitch likes to say.

697. Lying for Jesus?

Comment #161433 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 9:40 am

Of Strength's strengths, logic cannot be counted high among them.
No, no.
Hold on I am getting rained on by G-d droppings. Whatever they are.

698. Richard Dawkins' secular army must be stopped. God is behind some of our greatest art

Comment #161430 by MaxD on April 15, 2008 at 9:37 am

I skipped the second Clearmind post and conserved IQ, and HP points. I think that gave my like a gazillion EXP. Whew. I thought I was going to have to make a new me character.

699. Richard Dawkins' secular army must be stopped. God is behind some of our greatest art

Comment #161063 by MaxD on April 14, 2008 at 5:52 pm

Wow,
Clearmind. I think I just lost IQ points after reading your posts. I'm going to read something educational to rectify the situation you have put me in.

700. For sale: 13-year-old virgin

Comment #161055 by MaxD on April 14, 2008 at 5:44 pm

Cartomancer!
Goddamnit!
Did I miss animated lesbian porn hour?