I think by "valuable" he means "in control/able/powerful/worthy" and not necessarily valuable in the "needs to be protected" sense.

I guess I don't see what your objection to this article is. It's not like any of these things are extraordinary to ask for—most aren't anything beyond what regular law enforcement does for any sort of crime. Many universities are supposed to have them anyway. Okay, they "just didn't" have a better way of dealing with…

If you go to the police to report a crime like a robbery, they will help you figure out what sort of action to take, tell you how to call a lawyer, tell you how to fill out paperwork, etc. Someone will come back to your house to help you figure out the damage and to make sure you are safe.

Well, science says you're wrong. That was your stance, wasn't it?

A cursory examination of this book reveals that it is also a book about debunking Christian belief systems, not debunking the idea of human agency. In fact, he explicitly says in one interview here (the first one to pop up on a Google search) that humans should base choices on experience and evidence, not faith, which…

You don't think that calling reducing someone's perspective purely emotional and then placing emotion below science on a hierarchy of knowledge might in some way imply that they are dumb? Especially when you're positioning yourself as the holder of the scientific knowledge?

You mean Francis Crick, the known crackpot who stole most of his best science? And look, dude, even he believed in human agency. The quotation you are referring to is specifically about the existence of the human soul as a compass for good and evil (Crick did not believe in souls, and did not believe that humans got…

You don't think saying "your perspective is untrue and dumb" to people have experienced trauma might make them less likely to share their experiences?

Please name one scientist who has stated what you have stated here, because I am pretty damn well-read in the sciences and have not heard one person of repute state that humans are unequivocally acting without control. (You should also inform psychologists that they're going about their profession wrong while you're…

By "objective truth" you mean "my specific interpretation of varied and contrasting schools of thought, many of which are purely theoretical and not meant to be representative of reality, the talking points of which I have cherrypicked to suit my belief system" correct?

Science also says that the vast majority of people (like, everyone except for those with significant brain damage) have conscious control over their actions. Yes, we have certain inbred personality traits, but there is no branch of (real) science that says humans are completely unable to choose whether or not they…

Because incarceration is the only form of consequences that the English justice system utilizes?

This article is misinformed. The argument is actually about non-violent offenders in general. There is a discussion going on about how women are particularly victimized in prison (and generally are not committing as severe of crimes) as part of the larger debate, but the House of Lords is not actually debating not…

This article is misinformed. The proposition is about non-violent offenders in general, but Washington Post took a quote out of context and made it seem like the entire thing was about not putting women in prison.

Maybe I misunderstood—I took your post to be saying "Well, lots of sexual assault happens because the two parties aren't communicating clearly or understanding the other's communication." Which I suppose is true, but also should not be true in an ideal world, and sorta sounds like a defense for the university's…

There's a big difference between pointing out that women are not taught to be assertive when they should be (a noble goal, and something that would probably help cut down on sexual assaults) and saying that women are to blame for sexual assaults because they have faces that make expressions other than "DO NOT TOUCH."…

The main problem, it seems, is that the college did not have any reasonable consequences in place that would deter sexual assault. They should have a system that protects the victim and punishes the perpetrator (publicly so). If they have an environment where sexual assault is swiftly and severely dealt with, there…

Really? It seems to me that this comes down to her not being as sick at this point as she was expecting. The entire point of assisted suicide is for patients to be able to decide when their quality of life is too low to be worth it anymore. Saying, "well, she didn't do it exactly when she said she would, must be a…

Because it's one instance that helps illuminate larger issues.

The trend of validating people with shitty social behavior by saying "well, maybe they're on the spectrum" is actually pretty offensive to people who really are on the spectrum. Autistic people/people with Aspergers aren't incapable of proper social interaction, the rules of it just aren't inherently obvious to them…