“Could evolution be a fake explanation in that it doesn’t predict anything?”
I wouldn’t think so. Evolution theory predicted things like the kind of animals that are in some islands before exploring them. It also predicts what kind of fosils will you find someplace. It also predicts that if you get a bunch of dogs and select only the bigger ones, several generations later you will have “created” a new race of bigger dogs. Etc.
Nice article. I’m quite interested in this subject and I like to find it writen the rational way.
Hello Less Wrong!
First things first: I beg your pardon for my crappy English, this is not my first language.
I’m from Barcelona (no LW community, here, I’m afraid) and I studied telecom engineery, but I work as a teacher and I draw cartoons (you can check http://listocomics.com but they are in Spanish). I’m also a rationalist wanabe. I mean I haven’t even read the whole of your major sequences but I have always tried to move myself the rational way. I love Dawkins books and I was amazed the first time I read about logical fallacies at the Wikipedia. I have always been quite interested in phsicology, too, but most of the popular psychology books I’ve read set my bullshit alarm on, cause most of their content seemed to come from the mind of the author after thinking about it strong while sitting in the sofa, without further research. I’m glad of having found a site that talks aboute the human mind and human behavour in an easy to understand way and with references. It seems like a good place to learn stuff.
Actually, I’m curious about what you, as rationalists, may think about NLP. Is it the right place to ask? NLP: Bullshit or not?
And I would also love to hear some rationalist opinions about yoga. I’ve been trying it for a couple of months and I’m still confused. The stretching part is good for the muscles, that’s quite sure, but there also seem to be a lot of new age paraphernalia. Do you think there are serious researches proving that yoga is better than just stretching?
And, more in general, de rationalists recomend any specifical sport? Some way to get the maximum health with the minimum effort and time?
(I’m not sure if this was the right place to ask about those things, just tell me if I should post somewhere els or if those subjects are already discussed in some other thread)
Thanks for everything, and congrats for the page, I’m already recommending it to friends!
This post didn’t say anything new to us. We knew it all along.