I am trying to calculate a laplace transform from a differential equation

mickpc · 3 days

You seem to be combining/confusing time and frequency representations of ordinary differential equations. You need to hit the books a bit before you can make your question coherent.

HobosEverywhere · 3 days

You may want to check out the podcast Living After Faith, they are affiliated with the Recovering From Religion organization (founded by author D. Ray of the God Virus). As the name suggest, recovering from the damage of religion is a common theme but they do it in a very positive, warm, and compassionate way.

Le-derp2 · 7 days

I think you misunderstand skepticism, probably because the term is often misused to be almost equivalent to denialism and/or tethered with theistic ideas/demands of absolute certainty.

Skepticism is to be coupled with your confidence in your beliefs (acceptance of claims) scaling with the evidence and reasoned argument. If you try to be a skeptic while maintaining a binary confidence level, it will be crippling.

ferguson133 · 15 days

While you are technically right, critical thinking can be weak without knowledge. Knowledge of science can help inoculate you to certain unsupported/debunked claims when coupled with critical thinking and avoid wasting the thinkers resources.

Better yet, know the scientific method and apply it, without leaving room for special pleading. Let your confidence scale with the evidence and reasoned argument (Cosmos does a pretty good job of this). This aligns with critical thinking.

Again, tho you are technically correct, I think many of the things on the list go towards my "better yet" point.

thexavier · 16 days

Well I guess I'm not technically an American either so, lols all around.

ask0 · 16 days

Teach your kids healthy internet usage....

Oh darn, forgot that the parents mostly just know how to find porn...

poosticks!

throwawayagin · 16 days

That sounds like what in the US would be labeled as libertarian or rather a subset there of.

I strongly disagree with the notion that if certain funds are a part of our taxes then that imply that you aren't helping or shouldn't "take credit" for the good that can/is done with your taxes. Ideally, society comes to a contract through the government/election/representative system to provide funds for things that are beneficial for us as a society, these can be on a collective/group scale or on an individual scale.

There are certain things that are just more practically taken care of by "us" by using a structure such as the government (i.e. "us"). I'm a caring and giving person, but I'm also often very busy and sometimes lazy. I don't have the time or mental energy to devote to studying every thing I'd need to donate to in order to be as good a member of society, as I'd like to be, if everything the government did was on a donation/for-profit scheme. This is where I like us getting together and deciding, what are things we agree on (e.g. majority) and are reasonable (science/reasoned-argument/demonstration) to produce results that are good for us as a society and as individuals. That way things like fire-departments, major road construction, various basic research, and a health care safety net can be put in place without me having to waist all my time and energy on things that are nigh trivial. I can choose what I then want to focus on. Metaphorically, I can get to the trees I particularly want to nurture instead of having to sprinkle on the entire forrest by myself.

Finally, if I may also be so arrogant as to point out the fact that as a person with a post-graduate degree in science, me and most of my friends are well above the average intelligence, affluence, and some also have more free time than most people do. I know we would not practically have the time and mental energy to spend on all of these kind of things in an ideal libertarian world. If I can't expect that of myself and my friends in our privileged positions, how on earth is it reasonable for me to expect that of more than half the population who are below average on those metrics?

CopaceticMan · 16 days

Because every moment you decide not to kill yourself is a new chance at life, a potential new beginning.

thexavier · 16 days

hand up

Here is one :)

SaysNotAtheism · 17 days

Excellent answer as usual. I would like to add tho another related reason/goal:

Actively working towards removing the stigma associated with the label "atheist", which currently gives your opponent in an argument (unjustifiable) recourse to dismiss all your arguments.

If you wish to be an honest and forthright skeptic, then you surely will answer the question "do you believe in God/s?" with at least something other than "yes". At that point you can be asked if you are an atheist, which you then must admit, or the person you are arguing with will simply, rightly, assert that you are an atheist. If the stigma remains associated with the label, then the person can use that stigma to support them in dismissing your arguments.

In other words, if skeptics don't actively work towards lifting the stigma off the label "atheist" then they are setting up a trap for themselves in almost any argument.

SamredditSam · 17 days

So much for being a genius, I think I'd contest that claim now.

JonoLith · 19 days

Lecture - “Superiority of secular morality” Matt Dillahunty http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEP4OIj2NA0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUPPSjMa-BQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSunqrJKgUs http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTVI95wBCjc http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cu_VI0n4Q80 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VfFqrV41hs

This one is long but worth it, especially the second half:

Debate: “Is God Necessary for Morality?” Dr Kagan vs Craig http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l69QN7ixmM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MROOECd1mIw http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO1d2cX99bI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxTYnznuifE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZzlXzCz9JgI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yG0J8hncTbk http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23nJAa6-1-s http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs0zb3-8KmE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3DOooxcmmg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U4_b0GeDaT8

Dr_Cuddles · 22 days

Thank you for calling OP on his lies.

DrDOS · 27 days

And those are the people claiming moral superiority.... yea... oook

DrDOS · 1 month

that "no" sounds better :P

DrDOS · 1 month

God answers all prayers by: Yes, just wait, or I have something different/better in mind for you.

In other words, indistinguishable from no God (at least for a somewhat optimistic person).

DrDOS · 1 month

/Sarcasm

GoP-Demon · 1 month

I can't tell you right of the top of my head if the problem has a solution (it would trivially be non-unique), but I can tell you that you can use Matlab to try to find one.

if you already have a function fun(theta1,theta2,...) that gives you the matrix you have there, and you have the result, res=[..the-matrix-you-wrote..], then you can define an anonymous function, f = @(x) (reshape(fun(x(1),x(2),...,16,1)-reshape(res,16,1)).^2; Then use fmincon or some other built in minimization algorithm (just look up the help for those functions) to minimize the function (i.e., find it equal to zero if numerically able, since it is a positive definite function now) .

GoP-Demon · 1 month

I think you need to explain your problem a bit better. The example you gave doesn't makes sense (cos(x)=2 ???)

Anyway, if you are trying to solve a generic problem you can define a function of a vector k = [a,b,x,...], and a result vector n=[1,1,.5,...], so f = @(x) [x(1)sin(x(3)),x(2)cos(x(3)),cos(x(3)), ...] , then use fsolve or fmincon to solve for f(x)-n=0

Athryn84 · 1 month

Hear hear. This is evidence for there not being anything I find worthy of calling a god.

LaBamba00 · 1 month

You mean we should only have sex like animals? for procreation?

Nah, I think I'll go with a healthy mix of our nature, proven methods, and workable secular morals.

throwawayagin · 1 month

Your statement makes no sense, please rewrite it in case someone can actually help you.

MeMyselForWho · 1 month

Bunch of sources many youtube, some podcasts, and/or books.

throwawayagin · 1 month

If you are a US citizen coming from a libertarian or conservative background, then I suspect I actually disagree with you on this issue even tho you are technically correct.

DrDOS

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