definition

Was browsing the britannica online today and noted the following gent as the author at the bottom of the entry in atheism. I found myself intrigued but somewhat, for lack of a better term, disturbed by the article. Here is the piece I'm talking about... http://m.eb.com/topic/40634/atheism...

I have noticed that many of the threads on the Forum often reach a point where the debate turns from the matter in hand to the meaning(s) of a word or words, often through necessity. Indeed, some threads become completely derailed over word meanings. In such instances it is sometimes the case...

I have a problem with the current definition of life. The "definition" that we were all fed in school is essentially a laundry list of things that cells do. It's way more complicated than it needs to be, it's against occam's razor. Let's try to think of what fundimentally makes living systems...

So I'm new here, I'd like to say Hi and welcome everyone to an open discussion. In this thread I am asking you what the definition of the concept of what people call "paranormal" can be stripped down to. Many people have many experiences, and many understandings, yet what is something that can...

Social Issues --- Here's a link to someone's home-video demo! This could soon replace the commmon use on JREF forums of the venerable 'laughing dog' animation. (Tickle Me Elmo Xtreme -- released to the public 9-19-06) http://sr4001.com/2006/05/31/all-the-details-on-the-elmo-tmx/

This has been bugging me for a while, the official scientific definition of life is essentially that all life is cellular. I think this definition is problematic because it is too restrictive, what if there is life that isn't cellular. If we ever hope to look for life on other planets we must...

It is very difficult to discuss topics such as religious belief without first having adequately defined 'god'. Yet, I see very little discussion attempting to do so. Did I simply miss the boat and everyone else has a perfect understanding of what we talk about when we refer to 'god'? If not, I'd...

Given the universal-ness of the term 'Christian', the supposed two billion or so of them in their various guises/denominations, I was wondering if the term 'Christian' could be defined. I don't mean a Greek to English transliteration of the word, I want to know what you think a Christian is (and...

Believe me, I'm normally a humble person, but the following caused me some aggravation: How can a commonly used definition be mistaken? Expect some polemic to follow. Introduction: About Definitions You can reject a definition because it is circular, or because it contains a...

I think we can all agree that 'energy' is a word with a precise meaning in physics, and a much different meaning in common use. Perhaps we can also agree that the identification of these two meanings leads directly to many of the misconceptions of woo^2 physics. How can 'energy' in the physics...