• Starting today August 7th, 2024, in order to post in the Married Couples, Courting Couples, or Singles forums, you will not be allowed to post if you have your Marital status designated as private. Announcements will be made in the respective forums as well but please note that if yours is currently listed as Private, you will need to submit a ticket in the Support Area to have yours changed.

  • CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.

Recent content by DataPacRat

  1. DataPacRat

    Epistemology

    By which I assume you mean: As you say, this is supported by the psychological research, so I don't really need to /assume/ it. :) My initial reaction is to consider the short-term effects versus the long-term effects. For a somewhat exaggerated example, if belief-in-God makes you happier...
  2. DataPacRat

    Epistemology

    Mm... I'm afraid that I don't know enough about the specific case you mention to say anything one way or another. In general, though, it may be a cliche, but it's still a useful thought: where there's life, there's hope.
  3. DataPacRat

    Epistemology

    /Having/ beliefs that closely correspond to objective reality is an entirely different thing than /sharing/ those beliefs. For what purpose? Pick one - or pick several. (You might Google for 'desire utilitarianism' to learn more about purposes in general.)
  4. DataPacRat

    Epistemology

    You say that like it's a bad thing. If we can't refer to actual facts as the basis for whatever points we're making... then how can we make any headway in figuring out whether anything we're talking about is actually the case or not? Er... what? I was willing to go along for the sake of...
  5. DataPacRat

    Epistemology

    Mm... tricky, but as a first shot: truth is /useful/. Alright, then; given that believing the truth about various aspects of the unvierse allows us to manipulate things in order to make the universe come closer to being what we want it to be, and believing false things makes it...
  6. DataPacRat

    Epistemology

    ... I'm afraid that I'm not really sure what meaning you're ascribing to many of the terms you just used, and so I'm not really sure what it is you're trying to say. If I may make a suggestion, you might find "The Simple Truth" by Yudkowsky, at Yudkowsky - The Simple Truth , worth reading.
  7. DataPacRat

    Epistemology

    In that case, which falsehoods do you think should be believed?
  8. DataPacRat

    Is belief in God wishful thinking?

    This seems, to me, to be a bit of goalpost-moving; I was arguing that there are at least /some/ things about objective reality that we can figure out, based on objective evidence, which you seemed to be saying was impossible, while now you seem to be saying that you were talking about 'unflawed'...
  9. DataPacRat

    Is belief in God wishful thinking?

    'Our' experiences and 'our' reason may have led /you/ to believe in that, but /my/ experiences and /my/ reason have led to the opposite conclusion. I'd prefer you didn't include me in that 'none of us'; whether or not you are able to 'discern' anything about objective reality, doesn't mean...
  10. DataPacRat

    How do YOU feel about homosexuality?

    I try to judge the morality of actions by the harm they do - preferably measurable harm, such as, as Jefferson put it, 'picking pockets' or 'breaking legs'. If no such harm is done, then I don't see any immorality. Besides, as someone who's watched not just the ordinary SF/anime/furry/comic...
  11. DataPacRat

    Illuminati?

    If you want to learn more about the Illuminati, I suggest that you start here...
  12. DataPacRat

    What is a person?

    I think it's safe to bring in the general rules of the Turing test for something like this. :)
  13. DataPacRat

    What is a person?

    Here's a pithy reformulation - whaddaya think? "Who should have human rights? Anyone that can ask for 'em."
  14. DataPacRat

    What is a person?

    Hm... that only seems to move the question one step back, without answering it - how do you then determine who /should/ receive the deference and benefits?
  15. DataPacRat

    Is belief in God wishful thinking?

    So, is it your contention that the only way to evaluate whether someone's beliefs are in accordance with the actual truth is... to experience those beliefs, presumably by believing them? If your experiences have some connection to objective reality, then there are certain techniques which have...