All of davidkatz's Comments + Replies

I'm interested in what other effects taking minocycline has. Often the same biological systems regulate or affect diverse phenomena. Case in point, I believe sickle cell trait offers resistance against Malaria, but also (under other circumstances) causes sickle cell anemia.

Does taking minocycline only improve rational decision making? If it does, does that increase fitness? I see three options which are worthy of some reflection.

  • Our trust mechanism are not optimal, minocycline improves our decision making and increases fitness.
  • Our existing trust mechan
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I'll side with Dawkins and Krauss here. It seems to me inescapable that scientific progress and an ever better understanding of the natural causes of our world will ever tend to push out fables not based on evidence. As long as science will continue coming up with better answers, and as long as these answers (slowly) become known to more people, religions will continue withdrawing their claims from ever more areas, and with that their influence and authority will lessen.

In the last decades we've seen religious authorities the world over (including many Je... (read more)

The quickest solution is probably to not speak from a position of authority, or to practice adjusting our style of speech to match our actual level of authority.

Also, usually the annoying part about people who "speak with authority" is the arrogance, not the confidence. One can be confident without being arrogant, and one can (surprisingly) be arrogant without being confident.

6sixes_and_sevens
You speak with a suspicious quantity of authority on this subject...