"You're fairly forgiving, at heart; you agreed with the robin more than the blackbird, and you don't like blaming people for their decisions."

"You value pleasure unusually highly."

"If you're looking to investigate some philosophers you agree with, there are a few places you can look. You could try David Hume, who agrees with you on the nature of desire. You and Aristotle feel the same way about weak will. You're on the same page as John Rawls about collective responsibility. And Max Weber feels similarly to you with regard to whether it's possible to be too rational."

I realize that it is not a simple task but I couldn't forgive myself if I didn't try. Of course I don't expect to change the world but maybe I can be an inspiration to someone who will.

This is why, after graduating from medical school, I not only want to become a practicing physician but a science advocate. It is abundantly clear (in cases such as the denial of evolution and climate change) that the general public is not willing to read scientific literature and is not willing to further their understanding of science, or more importantly, the process of science.

The way I deal with death is by realizing that when I'm dead I won't know that I am dead. The only thing I can consciously experience is life so why not make it the best it can possibly be?

You did not exist for literally an eternity before you were born and you felt no pain, no suffering, no worrying. That exact same nothingness will continue on after you are dead. Nothing to worry about except for living a happy, meaningful life while you have the opportunity to do so.

Well, this was a great article to read as I enter medical school...

The last quote was great. This is sure to piss off many evolution-deniers.

How some people can invent scientific techniques like this blows my mind.

People are afraid of "chemicals" and forget that they are comprised themselves of "chemicals".

I feel like people who don't understand chemistry/biology have a very weird sense of what a "chemical" is. They hear words like "vaccine" and think, "I would never put CHEMICALS into my kids body." This is why I think proper science education is going to be huge in moving forward as a society. Without it all we have is the blind leading the blind and somehow the blind don't want to listen to those who can actually see what's going on in front of them.

That is disgusting. I hope he realizes how morally reprehensible his position is and I hope he changes his view on this issue accordingly.

As mentioned in the article, Christianity (and other religions) is not the only factor contributing to disbelief in evolution but it sure is a big one. Eventually, as we have seen with many other social/scientific issues, the religious right will accept it. However, they will find a way to slap the God label on it and find the vaguest of scriptural evidence to support it.

I wish there was something I could do about it. I feel helpless when all I can do to help is tell friends and family about the problem and they go, "huh interesting," and then move on.

I used to be on the fence about applying to a PhD program vs medical school. Halfway through college the answer was obvious. I love research, writing, and teaching but it's just not worth it. Medicine has it's own problems but it's not nearly as bad as postdoctoral work and trying to get funding and what not.

The immensity and complexity of objects in our universe never ceases to amaze me. Sometimes I look at those "scale of the universe" simulations just to know that I will never understand all of it. And that's fine because it leaves something left to be desired in life.

I've been here for 5 months and I've made about 60 comments total. I really hope to pick up the pace within the next year. But for now...hello!

I'm neutral on spirituality. I just don't know how to explore it. How do I explore something that doesn't seem to manifest?

Nas has converted a lot of people to liking rap. I think most people hate rap because they think it's all like Lil' Wayne and 2 Chainz.

I didn't get to watch it and I was on the fence until you said this. If I'm guessing correctly I'm pretty sure Bill just stated obvious scientific facts which Ham could not refute but touted faith or some other illogical circular arguments.

I think you summed up who I am in fewer words than I thought possible.

The concept of infinite space and time has very interesting implications. I remember reading a book that discussed the composition of the universe given that space and time were infinite.

The basic premise was that only a certain amount of matter and energy in a given amount of space is stable. This means that there is a finite set of arrangements that the matter can exist in in that space. If the universe is infinite then there must necessarily follow that every single state of existence exists. In other words, the probability that matter and energy will exist in a certain state is 100% if space is infinite. So there exists an infinite amount of doppelgangers of you, me, and everyone else that has ever existed.

I don't know how accurate that is because it supposes an infinite amount of matter to fill the infinite universe and I don't know enough about physics to make any sort of judgement.

Most people rent, or like me, still live at home, even in their late 20's and 30's. Family is very big here and there is no shame in living at home for that long. In my family alone I have one uncle, one aunt, one great uncle, and a few cousins all living with their respective parents and they range in age from 35-55. One of my cousins is even married!

The most telling sign of how bad it is here is that I work in a care home with 6 other people in my department. I just finished college and live at home. 3 of my coworkers are in their late 20's and all live at home because they can't afford to move out. The other 3 people in my department are over 60 and either have an apartment or a car, but not both. And this is including my boss.

Also I have exactly 0 friends who have moved out of their parent's homes and they are all college graduates. Luckily for me I will be attending medical school next year so I should be okay with regards to my finances in the future (or at least I hope so).

I could understand if we couldn't account for 10 or 20 percent of the calculated gravity but 85 percent is mind boggling. That's basically all of our gravity that is unaccounted for.

Which sucks for people like me who live here and have lived here all of our lives. Granted, I'm just out of college and still live at home so my life isn't too bad but I know it sucks for a lot of people here. The traffic is horrible, rent is ridiculous, and there are just too many people here now days. I've always wanted to live in Washington or California and I can't wait until the day that I can make that dream come true.

I've only been here for a few months but it's been a nice community with great discussion. I hope to be a more active member in 2014 (I tend to fall into a lurking-only mode on most forums). Here's to everyone on Hubski!

The physical evidence of evolution is literally in every organism that you view in your daily life. Yes, you will not see them speciate in front of your eyes because it takes hundreds, thousands, or millions of years for speciation to occur but you can see the process develop in front of your eyes as evidenced in the examples that I gave.

I'm not going to go the route of ad hominem attacks but I truly do believe if you understood biology/biochemistry/physics at a higher level you would understand what constitutes as physical evidence for evolution. The definition you give of evidence (seeing speciation occur) is only partially correct. If we saw speciation occur, then sure, that would constitute physical evidence but that's not the only type of physical evidence that exists.

For example:

There is a medical test called 16S ribosomal typing. This test is done when a doctor cannot figure out what pathogen is causing a certain pathology. After amplifying the rRNA/rDNA through PCR and examining the results they are able to compare the pathogen on an evolutionary chart to make very accurate predictions on what the organism is and how to further treat the patient. I think most would consider this very strong physical evidence for evolution (ie by looking directly at the organism and determining it's phylogeny through evolutionary genomic features we can cure disease).

On the second point. Why would God not be in control of those natural disasters? According to Christianity God created the universe and the laws observed within it. I can't see how God could not be held responsible. I am anticipating that you will counter this by saying that God just set the laws of nature in motion and therefore can't/won't alter it to protect human lives. If this is the case then we run into the very standard tri-omni dilemma in which God cannot be omnibenevolent, omniscient, and omnipotent at the same time. This dilemma also holds true for Free Will as you described in your article.

I wish someone with a better understanding of philosophy and science wrote this article as it was so poorly executed.

First, he says that we have no physical evidence of evolution. I don't even know where to begin to show how wrong this is. Actually, I do know, I can start in every single elementary biology text.

Second, he is conflating two uses of the word "faith". In his own words, "faith is the belief in something that cannot always be seen or touched." Evolution can be seen. The products of evolution are seen all around us everyday. And not to mention the fact that evolutionary traits have been directly observed as is the case with:

stickleback fish: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/variation/stickleback/

Podarcis Sicula: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080417112433.ht...

and many others. And this type of "faith" can make astoundingly accurate predictions about the world which his definition cannot.

Finally, his argument from pain/suffering doesn't include why natural disasters or any other non-human-caused pain/suffering exists. And the argument from Free Will, which eventually boils down to a morality argument confronts serious problems such as the Euthyphro Dilemma.

Thanks! I check pubmed quite often but I didn't know that PLOSOne also had open access journals.

If I cancel my subscriptions to the aforementioned journals where else can I find new primary research on a weekly basis? Links to sources would be really appreciated.

They do often contain interesting science

I'm not sure if I'm reading too much into this but do you mean to say that the science is merely interesting as opposed to significant or do you mean that it is both interesting and significant?

I don't really understand how someone can create a new currency that can be globally traded. Basically what I'm asking is...how do you just make up a new currency? Where does the value come from?

Before clicking the link I thought to myself, "this better be a link to a blank list." Thankfully I was not proven wrong.