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Comment Re:kind of like the police (Score 2) 869

To take the Tooth Fairy example further, if we accept it is reasonable for a person to say "The Tooth Fairy does not exist" in day-to-day language without needing to add the disclaimer "of course, in a strictly scientific sense there is a small possiblity that the Tooth Fairy does exist so I am not ruling it out completely", is it not also reasonable for somebody to say "God does not exist" without having to add a similar disclaimer?

If somebody says "I was ten years old when I found out Santa Claus doesn't exist", nobody nitpicks them on the principle that you can't disprove something entirely. Why the special allowance for God?

Comment Re:I have to nitpcik TFA: (Score 1) 394

My vision is as good as the next guy's, but when I saw Avatar, although I thought the 3D effect 'cool' like most people, there was a small portion of my vision that was always on the periphery and which felt 'glassy' or 'haloed' as though a bit on each of the lenses was finely scratched or smeared with Vaseline. It was noticeable enough that I tried polishing the glasses on my shirt several times throughout the movie to no avail. It may have been a dud pair of glasses, and I have not seen a 3D film at the cinema since to compare, but it was an irritating distraction irrespective of its cause.

Comment Acrobat (Score 2) 272

My computer at work is licensed for Acrobat 8 Professional. After upgrading Microsoft Office 2003 to 2010, I can no longer create PDF files from Word documents. Looking online, the solution to this issue from Adobe appears to be "upgrade to Acrobat X". Yeah, thanks.

Comment Re:It's quite simple (Score 1) 348

These sites support the rapid free sharing of information, thus reducing the ability of authors to profit from the books they write, of singers to profit from the songs they sing, of directors to profit from the films they create. In turn, this reduces their motivation to create such works, and this reduced motivation might lead them to reduce the amount of works they create for our enjoyment.

I'm curious. At what point does this breakdown in cultural output appear?

Your argument, if I understand it correctly, is that when piracy becomes widespread, nobody will make any real money from writing, film or music, so any professional output in these areas will die off. Well, piracy is already quite widespread, yet the film-makers, music artists and popular novelists appear to be making as much, if not more, money as they were 5/10/15 years ago. How many more Pirate Bays are required until cultural output declines to a statistically significant level?

Comment Re:yes but... (Score 1) 1251

I like the world you live in - where all people change their opinions and beliefs once they learn new facts or contrary rational arguments. I really wish I lived there.

For that to happen, cognitive dissonance would need to be virtually eliminated, and seeing how prevalent it is in the human psyche, that won't be happening for a long time.

Seriously, read this book. It will make you rethink why people behave the way they do, and how they justify their beliefs and behaviour. It is eye-opening but rather depressing at the same time.

Comment Re:Before we start the flame wars (Score 1) 962

And why do you assume there are only two available explanations?

Well, if we didn't become our own species through gradual evolution (whether naturally, assisted by God or by aliens) and if we didn't become our own species by being created in our present form from scratch (whether naturally, assisted by God or by aliens), how else can you explain homo sapiens? What is the missing third way?

If a cake has not been made from ingredients, and a cake has not appeared from nowhere fully formed, how else do you explain the cake, the nature and character of the baker aside?

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