I don’t think it’s possible to integrate core Babyeater values into our society as it is now. I also don’t think it’s possible to integrate core human values into Babyeater society. Integration could only be done by force and would necessarily cause violence to at least one of the cultures, if not both.
inklesspen
Other hominids have been known to keep pets. I would not be surprised if cetaceans were capable of this as well, though it would obviously be more difficult to demonstrate.
According to the article, they lack crucial features such as double-blinding. Most social networks lack the openness and data retention critical for effective peer review. It is possible to learn something from a network like the one described, but I would hesitate to call it science.
Well, you will have to be careful how you do it; my understanding is that most doctors are exasperated at people who self-diagnose based on reading things on the Internet. It’s a bias, sure, but it doesn’t seem to be an unreasonable one. So you wouldn’t want to bring it up on your very first visit. You will need to wait until you’ve demonstrated your non-crank-ness.
Once you and your doctor know each other better, though, I think it would be an excellent idea to bring more data to the table. My objection is to an article entitled “Med Patient Social Networks Are Better Scientific Institutions”, not one entitled “Med Patient Social Networks Are A Useful Tool In Improving Care”.
The “people” in the quoted bit are correct. This is not science; this is statistical analysis.
It is possible that an individual would be better served by this social network, though I have generally agreed that a physician who treats himself has a fool for a patient, and the more so for a layman who neglects to consult competent medical authorities. These social networks certainly cannot take the place of original research; they rely on existing observed trends.
Integrating the values of the Baby-eaters would be a mistake. Doing so with, say, Middle-Earth’s dwarves, Star Trek’s Vulcans, or GEICO’s Cavemen doesn’t seem like it would have the same world-shattering implications.
I don’t see a terrible problem with comments being “a discussion about the facts of the post”; that’s the point of comments, isn’t it?
Perhaps we just need an Open Threads category. We can have an open thread on cryonics, quantum mechanics and many worlds, Bayesian probability, etc.
- Feb 17, 2010, 6:10 AM; 1 point) 's comment on Issues, Bugs, and Requested Features by (
There may also be a limit to how wisely one can argue that spending money on wars while cutting taxes for the wealthy is sound economic policy.
Does any viewpoint have a right to survive in spite of being wrong?
I think the thing that made me a seeker-after-rationalism is the same thing that made me an agnostic: Greg Egan’s Oceanic.
I grew up in a fundamentalist household and had had one moment of religious euphoria. Oceanic made me confront the fact that religious euphoria, like other euphoria, is just naturalistic phenomena in the brain. Still waiting on my fundamentalist parents to to show evidence for non-naturalistic causes for naturalistic phenomena.
My journey away from theism was characterized by smaller arguments such as these. There was no great leap, just a steady stream of losing faith in doctrines I had been brought up to believe. Creationism went first. Discrimination against homosexuals went next. Shortly after that, I found it impossible to believe in the existence of hell, except perhaps in a sort of Sartrean way. Shortly after that, I found myself rejecting large portions of the Bible, because the deity depicted therein did not live up to my moral standards. At that point I was finally ready to examine the evidence for God’s existence, and find it wanting.
I think in the end you will find that there are two things which can work. You must either point out that the beliefs lead to conclusions that are not just inconsistent, but also absurd, or you must point out that the beliefs lead to conclusions that contradict more “core” beliefs, such as “love your neighbor as yourself”.
Fred Clark is a liberal, fairly orthodox Christian. He blogs on a variety of subjects, including the birther/TeaParty movement, the deficiencies of creationism ([1] [2]), the strange phenomenon of religious hatred of homosexuals ([3] [4] [5]), and an interesting view on vampires. (He also has an entertaining ongoing series where he rips apart the popular fundie series ‘Left Behind’, and shows how the writers know nothing of their own religion, let alone how the real world works.)
You could do worse than to look at how he handles this sort of thing, from a religious perspective.