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No, that is totally bogus reasoning. If I drop a tennis ball on my foot it will either break my foot or not break my foot, but these outcomes are not equally likely. You can only assign probabilities the way you describe if you first assume, or argue, that all outcomes are equally likely, for...

Unfortunately I don't know of any good concise guides that I can recommend, but I can suggest some key thinkers who examine the so called 'truth' of common morality: - Bernard Williams Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy (Go here first - Williams is a brilliant writer who seems very tuned in...

I happily accept the 'relativist' label when I'm feeling lazy, but my views perhaps more properly fall under moral nihilism (which avoids some of the variability in how 'relativism' is used). The book sounds interesting, and I agree with some of his ciriticism of popular arguments for...

I came across an interesting essay today called Identity is That Which is Given by a public intellectual called Kenan Malik. Malik identifies tension between the desire to respect autonomous self-creation and the active preservation of culture. An extract: I found it to be an interesting...

Yes, this is my belief.

Yes (but it was on a B.S. technicality which I successfully appealed, though it took the med fac about a year to get back to me. And I hear they spent > $ 1 Mil revamping their admin structure for the new course? Fail).

This debate really hinges on what is meant by the ambiguous verb 'to need'. Without engineers we don't have any advanced forms of things like medicine, agriculture, transport, manufacturing, information technology and computation. What constitutes a 'need'?

It's pretty bad man. I watch Bill O'Reilly on occaision for laughs. The degree of bias he displays is almost unparalleled.

Re: Obama Assassination Threat! A well written article: Campaign rhetoric as an invitation to violence.

You seem to be going for a naturalistic pantheism, which is fair enough. I do wonder, though, whether we need to retain the label 'god' in this instance - versus universe/multiverse/reality/etc. Also, on omniscience, mightn't there be limitations on what can be known preventing god/reality from...

Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance I assume? It's a fun book. I agree that a lot of dilemmas deserve to be challenged head on. A lot of philosophy consists of unasking bad questions (though too often some of the really hard, fundamental questions get brushed over). Also, your god...

Why is there something rather than nothing?: I love and hate this question at the same time. Heidegger refers to it as "the first of all questions". It's certainly represents the peak of armchair metaphysics, but at the same time it seems to hit a central nerve running through our existential...

Haha, it's funny, I have actually been giving the thread a wide berth on account of the discussions of the same old basic philosophical/theological gripes. But then it's a student forum, and so people need to be able to run with and discuss such ideas. It would be great to be able to direct...

It often pays off to keep treatment for infectious diseases affordable and easily accessible - otherwise the healthcare system incurs more costs on account of the spread of the infectious agent through the population (and note that you can have silent chlamydial pelvic inflammatory disease which...

You wouldn't tell someone that they are definitely going to get breast cancer. However, it is important for them to understand that present evidence suggests that they are more likely than not to develop breast cancer during their lifetime if a BRCA 1/2 mutation is identified. Some women in this...

We're talking about different figures. The statistics that you are citing refer to prevalence of the BRCA1/2 mutations in certain populations and the proportion of breast cancer cases in the community attributable to BRCA1/2. The 60-85% (hence ~70%) figure I was citing is the individual's...

Given the lifetime risk confered by BRCA1/2 I think a certain level of anxiety, short of hysteria, is warranted. We're looking at something in the order of a 70% lifetime risk of developing breast cancer. You're less likely to get heads on a coin flip. Those are not comfortable odds.

That's why we need good genetic counsellors and doctors with communication skills. The average person should be able to grasp something like genetic risk if it is spelled out clearly. The media is a whole other story of course.

Clinical breast exams are of dubious benefit (evidence is not perfect but indicates litte to no effect on population breast cancer mortality) and regular mammography in low risk groups is poor use of the healthcare dollar. BRCA1/2 mutations justify increased frequency of mammography and may even...

Nah, praise and cult status are permitted in Australia so long as they are directed at someone on the cricket pitch or the try line.