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It's still only 6 years if you do MBBS/BMedSci(hons), though it is 7 years if you do BA/MBBS. You can do the UNSW degree in 5 years if you have done honours/masters/etc previously.

I agree with your example in the first paragraph quoted above that if it were just a matter of deciding between two proposed theories of reality [i.e. (1) the world is real vs. (2) the world is simulated] then Ockham's razor could be introduced to reject option (2) which holds our experiences to...

But even those premises don't sit at the right theoretical level for the application of Ockham's razor to be appropriate. In the scientific context, the principle of parsimony (much the same thing as O's razor) is used to help decide between competing theories. Theories, in science, aim to...

I really don't think that Ockham's Razor is the right thing to apply here. In this argument the claim that we are in a simulated reality is a conclusion, not a premise/assumption. Any issues with the argument seem, to me, to lie at the level of ascription of probability. If the respective...

Aye, this is where I sit.

As long as the individual who rejects objective morality indexes their concept of 'better' no problem arises. In other words, as long as by 'moral theory X is better than Y' they mean ['I]relative to my personal value system, moral theory X may be judged superior to Y' [/I] there is no issue...

Mmm, such is my thrust.

For interest, the US government has been making use of a pretty neat world simulator: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_Environment_for_Analysis_and_Simulations (wiki) http://www.mgmt.purdue.edu/academics/mis/workshop/AC2_100606.pdf (rough structure)

Curious quote. Very obtuse. I find it interesting that he won't go so far as to say outright that "it is a fiction which claims to express, in figurative terms, a truth about human nature".

Aye, but that wasn't the thrust of my argument. The other points hold irrespective.

Sex isn't necessary to keep you alive; nor are most types of food (taken individually). You simply delay the arbitrariness by using a vague term like "what's necessary for the human body". Necessary for what? Staying alive? Biological perpetuation of the species? Well being? etc... The other...

While the distinction is often murky, I think the division in the literature (where one exists) tends to be the other way around. Pharmacologists tend to be precise about defining physical dependence (say, in terms of the resetting of molecular/physiological homeostasis) whereas addiction tends...

There is so much data in support of this claim to be found in the 'does god exist?' thread.

But Iron, you mentioned the ratio of ten women to each man. Now, wouldn't that necessitate the abandonment of the so-called monogamous sexual relationship, I mean, as far as men were concerned, thus flying in the face of the traditional principles that our fearless leaders would teach us?

Which one?

I actually find this argument quite interesting because it's not entirely unreasonable. Replies to waf's points: (1) This is really the crux of the issue. Is it even possible to create an artificial consciousness? I don't think our neurosciences are complete enough to make proper...

I disagree. I think that 'created' is the right term because it is the associated ideas of purpose and intent (and the like) which are carried with the concept of creation that seem to bequeath meaning to the created (within the creationists framework). To fall back on the position that we are...

Haha, cheers mate. I am but a consumer of brains. We all stand on the shoulders of giants.

But this isn't a problem for an atheist, because from the perspective of the atheist humans are not created beings either. Thus your objection that the atheistic position leads to meaninglessness doesn't hold because it rests on the assumed existence of a creator (without which we "need not be...

You're on some Heidegger pills, yo. The above is quite similar to Heidegger's distinction between authentic and inauthentic modes of being. He holds that most people, most of the time, are in the latter mode, i.e. when they "meander along their business." However, these periods are also...