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Then get private health insurance (or, take comfort in the fact that I have little interest in surgery).

Aye, you've more or less got it in one. The wiki article on moral relativism is fairly comprehensive. The term is sometimes used in a descriptive sense to identify the supposed fact that morality varies across sociocultural contexts. I'm am using in the stronger, metaethical sense (where...

Perhaps god exists and doesn't exist?

But this is a key part of the debate. On one hand you have the empirical data which can be used to argue factual claims, and on the other you have moral debate regarding what we ought to do given the established facts. It's a mistake to simply ignore the associated problems. Embrace the spectre...

How so? Also, did you hear about that idea which defies comprehension?

God's best friend is that way too.

As stated in the 'does god exist' thread - you need to look at metanalyses given that they are available. See my post.

Leviticus: Faggot by Meshell Ndegeocello (random comment: she's also probably my favourite bass player).

I feel I should second Zeitgeist's call of "a priori moralism" here. I think it is perfectly acceptable to tax people for the greater good of the community. I firmly believe that inequalities in our initial conditions (genes and environment) determine our success - or simply our outcomes in...

(1) On Phaedo: I've read several parts of Phaedo - the arguments don't hold up given present knowledge. Firstly, an immortal soul is not required to explain why you can lead a slave boy through basic geometrical proofs - today we have genetics and theories of innateness to explain this (think...

Two issues with your above post: - You can't argue from the existence of the soul without first giving us good reason to believe that souls do in fact exist. - Scientists talk about the beggining of the 'observed' universe. Some theories do involve an eternal 'metaverse' of sorts (and...

Inductive arguments are generally softer than hard-nosed deductive arguments. Nonetheless, one might argue that the success of the method of natural science (thus far) implies that it makes sense to apply the same method to the problem of the origin of the universe. It has generally been found...

Sucks to be destitute or disabled.

You claim the argument is possible - so please, reproduce it for us (btw: be aware that Kantian metaphysics is controversial enough that it can't simply be assumed).

These two stood out to me. I'd like to know how the study was conducted - I'm truly amazed that the proportion of students in a given bachelor degree that are unable to identify a noun could be as high as 90%. I still hold out in hope. Maybe this will change once we have important enough...

Nah dude, interpedendence is where it's at. Everything belongs to the universe I'm afraid.

No thanks. Cheers for caring through.

You can focus on European History at UNSW, but not British. See: http://www.arts.unsw.edu.au/ces/2007%20program.html

I am sorry for being so terse, but you are making sweeping generalisations which are very much false. You're working with strawman caricatures of 'the atheist' and 'the skeptic'. Atheists don't have to require that all things have a cause (though some do, I'm sure), and skepticism doesn't...

In the face of RCT studies with conflicting results is is often best to turn to metanalysis (which, as is so often drilled into me, is at the top of the pyramid of evidence). I have found a couple good studies which, considered together, suggest that intercessory prayer has zero (or otherwise...