Prove me wrong and I’ll send you a thank-you card! I’m not allergic to being corrected – only to staying wrong 🖖🏽⚖️😎
Pragmatist Demarcation Zone
Joined April 2007
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FTL-FTW | Ψ&Ψ | ɘʏɘ ɘɔᴎɘiɔꙅ retweeted
It shows that pseudoscience and religion are non-falsifiable because you can always invent some ad hoc excuse to rescue it. Unlike science that has concrete claims, like water freezes at 0 C°.
FTL-FTW | Ψ&Ψ | ɘʏɘ ɘɔᴎɘiɔꙅ retweeted
The epistemological problem behind the "supernatural" is illustrated by what I call (in Truth) Sagan's Dragon:
Imagine that I tell you that I have a dragon in my garage. Would you like to see it?
Sure you would! Who wouldn’t? Dragons are popular in works of fiction, so wouldn’t it be exciting if it turned out that dragons are real?
But you need evidence to believe, so you ask to see this dragon.
I eagerly oblige by taking you to my garage and opening the door. You look inside and see some boxes, paint cans, a ladder, a bicycle and other knickknacks, but no dragon. You ask, “where’s the dragon?”
I reply, “oh, this is an invisible dragon.”
An “invisible dragon?” you respond skeptically.
Perhaps there’s a way to get around the dragon’s invisibility, you suggest, by sprinkling flour on the floor of the garage so that when the invisible dragon walks around, its footprints will become apparent. This would provide empirical evidence in support of a potentially objective truth about the existence of dragons.
“That won’t work,” I explain, “because this invisible dragon hovers a foot above the ground.”
“An invisible hovering dragon?” you raise your eyebrows in doubt. You then suggest that we get one of those portable thermometers everyone has been using during the pandemic and measure the temperature at different places in the garage to detect the dragon’s body heat.
“Sorry,” I reply, “but this is a cold-blooded dragon. It doesn’t give off any heat.”
“Let me get this straight,” you groan in exasperation. “This dragon of yours is invisible, can levitate, and gives off no heat whatsoever. What about the fire it breathes? Surely our thermometer can detect the hot fire from a fire-breathing dragon?”
“Actually,” I dissemble, “this dragon breathes cold-fire, a little-known phenomenon vouchsafed only to this particular species of dragon.”
By now, you are growing frustrated and ask me in a challenging voice: “What’s the difference between an invisible levitating cold-blooded cold-fire-breathing un-detectable dragon…and no dragon at all?!”
The answer is none. There is no difference between an invisible levitating cold-blooded cold-fire-breathing un-detectable dragon…and no dragon at all.
And these religious-like convictions don't help:
"I feel the presence of the dragon"
"I feel the love of the dragon"
"Through the dragon all things are possible"
"After I started believing in the dragon my life changed"
FTL-FTW | Ψ&Ψ | ɘʏɘ ɘɔᴎɘiɔꙅ retweeted
This is undoubtedly one of the greatest takedowns and commentaries of any product in history.
Thank you for your service, @ZacksJerryRig.
FTL-FTW | Ψ&Ψ | ɘʏɘ ɘɔᴎɘiɔꙅ retweeted
Weird how BladeIt's weird how Blade seems like a better person than Jesus Christ. Jesus wouldn't stop someone from being assaulted, while that's kind of Blade's entire persona.
FTL-FTW | Ψ&Ψ | ɘʏɘ ɘɔᴎɘiɔꙅ retweeted
Shaquille O'Neal looked his six kids dead in the eye and told them they were not touching a single cent of his $400 million empire unless they earned two college degrees first. He made it clear: "We ain't rich. I'm rich."
The best part is that he actually enforces it.
When his son Myles wanted to be a DJ, Shaq made him present a full business model before funding a single piece of equipment. Today, Myles holds a Las Vegas residency.
His son Shareef is working a real job for his dad at Reebok.
His oldest daughter Taahirah graduated Magna Cum Laude and went straight into corporate communications.
And just this past May, his son Shaqir graduated from college and immediately announced he was going back for his second degree just to meet his father's baseline standard.
We live in a culture where parents bend over backward to give their kids everything they never had, but in the process, they strip away all their drive and character. Shaq realized that handing his children everything would ultimately teach them absolutely nothing about the value of hard work.
Fame and wealth didn't stop him from being a traditional father who demands accountability. How many other parents actually have the backbone to raise their kids with this kind of standard today?
