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I was just watching the Australian Christian Channel - one of my guilty pleasures - and I was given an enlightening lesson in biblical literalism (by a show called The Bible's greatest miracles: the proof!). Things I learnt: - There is conclusive evidence, "that would hold up in any court of...

It depends on the kind of work you want to do. It might be worth looking into Masters and PhD programs in areas like clinical psychology and neuropsychology. The psychology.org.au site has a pretty good list of niche areas of psychology that are probably worth reading over.

But if you give up on truth all together then you give up a forum in which I have any reason to accept your assertions. Certainly, I could choose them on the basis of their utility ('do his claims suit my needs?') but then acceptance of your claims is contingent upon the desires of others. You...

Read this article about dolphins first - they really are quite intelligent. The article reveals forward planning, cunning and culture in a dolphin population. Orcas and dolphins (as Kwayera mentioned) have variable dialects, behaviors and hunting tricks from location to location. They adapt in...

That's fair enough if you meant deep in the follicle. In any case, I'm curious to know what pro-lifers think about pluripotential cells. Undoubtedly souls will be the difference for the religious (at which point I suggest Ockham's razor, as per the 'does god exist?' thread). I am quite...

Kwayera - Hair contains dead cells, but I still think your point is a good one. Nonetheless, playing devil's advocate: what of the fact that random collections of cells sloughed off from the heart or the intestinal track do NOT contain pluripotential cells, i.e. they cannot differentiate into...

Technical issue: a number of contraceptive devices are thought to have a partly abortive function. For example, every now and then a woman on the oral contraceptive pill will in fact have an egg fertilised only to have it aborted because the lining of the uterus is inadequate (and similarly for...

There is actually an interesting phenomenon where stem cells from the unborn child can implant in the mother (most notable when cells with a 46 XY karyotype are found in the mother - often around the ribs if I recall correctly?). I'm not sure about this but I seem to remember a study being...

Some laws are worth hating. For example, there are arguments to be made suggesting that the fact that ecstasy is illegal is more detrimental than beneficial (since relatively pure forms of the compound are really quite safe, especially when compared to something as toxic as alcohol, and most of...

Aye, and it seems, to me, to be a central problem revealed by moral psychology. For a semi-relevant study see: Sympathy and Callousness

The terms are used more or less interchangeably, even within moral/ethical theory - i.e. there isn't any one strict, agreed upon distinction. Traditionally, ethics has been the science, or philosophical study, of morality but you could just as well use the term 'moral theory'. Ethics is also...

Aye, a number of my friends from highschool hit uni and ditched it after a couple of months or switched to part time study. I suppose uni brings out my inner masochist :p. In a week and a bit I'm going to hit a full time third year med load of 40 contact hours a week (24 are clinical) which is a...

Heh, try 7. However, in the spirit of this thread, I should note that they will be an enjoyable seven years - I'm pretty pleased to be able to do an arts degree (with honours) in philosophy and a medical degree semi-simultaneously. I can think of other options which would tempt me, but what I...

It's nice when someone gets the point. Facetious? Perhaps a little. Trolling? Not intentionally, though it seems I 'succeeded' nonetheless.

Brilliant.

You seem to be vulnerable to a pitfall similar to that which so often traps those who claim "there is no Truth". What difficulty do they face? The fact that many of them speak as though they themselves offer a truth of the sort they deny. Similar issues pertain to your claim that (and correct me...

Iron, I don't know Dawkins well enough to really comment - I haven't actually read any of his work. I think that there are suitable substitutes for the wishful stories of objective morality and religion, it just takes a little bit of existential courage to embrace them. You might even say that I...

Brad, on all of these counts I think you may get a lot from a dialogue written by the logician/philosopher/magician Raymond Smullyan called Is God a Taoist? (<-- link).

This isn't simply a matter of transcendental beliefs with no bearing on, or relation to, our earthly existence. Firstly, experience can contradict transcendental claims. Yes, you can 'have faith' that the "mere appearances" provided to us by phenomenal experience are false and must fall before...

But if good studies have been performed and are available for scrutiny then administrative bodies like the TGA (the FDA is in the US) should be able to clear a drug for use. Also, side effects are usually more insidious (and harder to pick up) than 'death'; things like nausea, gastric ulcers...