Bait-and-switch questions

[David Young]

I have never had a straight answer to any of the following 4 questions:

What scientific argument for a rival to evolution has been submitted for publication in an independent, peer-reviewed, scientific journal?
What legal activity, which harms nobody, would you not be able to perform if every public place in your country was monitored by CCTV round the clock?
In what job are women paid less than men for doing one hundred percent exactly the same work as men?
What moral act could not be performed by a person without a religious faith?

However, all four generate answers to questions I have not asked, while the replier is insistent that it is the answer to the original question.

What other questions have you never been able to get a reply from, regardless of how passionately someone insists that their bait-and-switch reply is an actual answer?

 

[exchemist]

I have never had a straight answer to any of the following 4 questions:

What scientific argument for a rival to evolution has been submitted for publication in an independent, peer-reviewed, scientific journal?
What legal activity, which harms nobody, would you not be able to perform if every public place in your country was monitored by CCTV round the clock?
In what job are women paid less than men for doing one hundred percent exactly the same work as men?
What moral act could not be performed by a person without a religious faith?

However, all four generate answers to questions I have not asked, while the replier is insistent that it is the answer to the original question.

What other questions have you never been able to get a reply from, regardless of how passionately someone insists that their bait-and-switch reply is an actual answer?

Coat-trailing, are we?

Actually, I do not believe you have never had a straight answer to any of these questions.

 

[sayak83]

I have never had a straight answer to any of the following 4 questions:

What scientific argument for a rival to evolution has been submitted for publication in an independent, peer-reviewed, scientific journal?
What legal activity, which harms nobody, would you not be able to perform if every public place in your country was monitored by CCTV round the clock?
In what job are women paid less than men for doing one hundred percent exactly the same work as men?
What moral act could not be performed by a person without a religious faith?

However, all four generate answers to questions I have not asked, while the replier is insistent that it is the answer to the original question.

What other questions have you never been able to get a reply from, regardless of how passionately someone insists that their bait-and-switch reply is an actual answer?

2nd: Hold a protest against the government, as there is a risk that that information will be recorded and used against me (for example to deprive me of a job or access to passport etc.) You are aware of what has happened in Hong Kong yes? There are many many countries (even so called liberal ones) where such information can be used by the government to target you in various ways like with spyware etc. Heard of Pegasus?
3rd question: Payment to women's soccer team vs men's soccer team. Wide disparity, same work (and better as women's team perform better). That was an easy one as the pay is publicly available. In most other cases, pay packages are private and not accessible unless there is a lawsuit. But I am sure those have been dug up somewhere. I think there have been data that shows that male lead actors are paid more than female lead actors.

 

[David Young]

For the record, here are the most popular switches:

From:
What scientific argument for a rival to evolution has been submitted for publication in an independent, peer-reviewed, scientific journal?
switch to:
Can you name a scientist who does not believe in Evolution?
Runner up: Can you describe a hoax which was successfully peer reviewed?

From:
What legal activity, which harms nobody, would you not be able to perform if every public place in your country was monitored by CCTV round the clock?
switch to:
The above but with 'public' changed to 'private'.
Runner up: Change 'would you not be able to perform' to 'would you not like the consequences of performing'.

From:
In what job are women paid less than men for doing one hundred percent exactly the same work as men?
switch to:
In what job are women paid less than men on average?
Runner up: In what job are women paid less than men for doing something similar to something men do?

From:
What moral act could not be performed by a person without a religious faith?
switch to:
Can you describe something you regard as moral but which a person outside your faith does not?
Runner up: Can you describe an atheist who was/is bad?

Post 3: You have answered the runner-up questions to the second and third.

 

[exchemist]

For the record, here are the most popular switches:

From:
What scientific argument for a rival to evolution has been submitted for publication in an independent, peer-reviewed, scientific journal?
switch to:
Can you name a scientist who does not believe in Evolution?
Runner up: Can you describe a hoax which was successfully peer reviewed?

From:
What legal activity, which harms nobody, would you not be able to perform if every public place in your country was monitored by CCTV round the clock?
switch to:
The above but with 'public' changed to 'private'.
Runner up: Change 'would you not be able to perform' to 'would you not like the consequences of performing'.

From:
In what job are women paid less than men for doing one hundred percent exactly the same work as men?
switch to:
In what job are women paid less than men on average?
Runner up: In what job are women paid less than men for doing something similar to something men do?

From:
What moral act could not be performed by a person without a religious faith?
switch to:
Can you describe something you regard as moral but which a person outside your faith does not?
Runner up: Can you describe an atheist who was/is bad?

Post 3: You have answered the runner-up questions to the second and third.

Hmm, I suppose, though, it is inevitable that when a loaded or unclear question is asked, the responder will often attempt to deal with the loading or resolve the lack of clarity. After all it is easy to ask questions that can't be answered simply, e.g. "Have you stopped beating your wife?"

Take your first for instance. What do you mean by "evolution"? There have been plenty of peer-reviewed papers offering alternatives to evolution by Darwinian natural selection. If you extend "evolution" to include epigenetics and genetic drift, it gets harder to find examples. But even then, the science is constantly moving on and new processes keep being added to the model we have of "evolution". So it is strictly speaking very hard indeed to give an unambiguous answer.

Regarding the second, it is clearly the case that public surveillance does not in itself prevent any activity, whether lawful or otherwise. So to give the question meaning, the responder has to guess at the assumptions the questioner appears to be making, or the potentially misleading rhetorical point he may want to take from the answer. It is, in short, a pain-in-the-arse, clever-dick type of question, is it not?

 

[sun rise]

These seem straw man questions because not all believers in God or even Christians disparage science, turn a blind eye to injustice or ignore what anyone can do.

What scientific argument for a rival to evolution has been submitted for publication in an independent, peer-reviewed, scientific journal?

None since evolution has been proven.

What legal activity, which harms nobody, would you not be able to perform if every public place in your country was monitored by CCTV round the clock?

Trick question. Able to perform or willing to perform because it was recorded? The latter is more the issue.

In what job are women paid less than men for doing one hundred percent exactly the same work as men?

Many

What moral act could not be performed by a person without a religious faith?

None. But it's my experience that in helping the poor a group I support does not find secular groups as dedicated as religious ones. And studies have shown religious people give more than non-religious people.

 

[A Vestigial Mote]

I have never had a straight answer to any of the following 4 questions:

Your questions are pretty loaded. A simple answer can be given that, perhaps, gives you some satisfaction, however the justifications for still not wanting to accept what you seem to be expecting everyone tacitly accept when they provide that "simple answer" is what the people are trying to give you. So let's see...

What scientific argument for a rival to evolution has been submitted for publication in an independent, peer-reviewed, scientific journal?

None that I know of. There probably aren't any that stand up to such rigors.

What legal activity, which harms nobody, would you not be able to perform if every public place in your country was monitored by CCTV round the clock?

No legal activity, no. (straight, simple answer)

However - there are obvious reasons people wouldn't want round-the-clock surveillance of this kind. I mean... picking your nose is legal - reaching down your pants and scratching your butt is legal - even pulling your hand out of your pants after scratching your butt and sniffing your fingers is completely legal. Do I want people to have to possibly answer for these types of "perfectly legal" things if they are to some day run for office, and this is the only "dirt" some unscrupulous butthead happens to find on them? No. No one needs that level of information on people. And here, those are just examples of "perfectly legal" things a person may not want someone else seeing them do, or possibly have recordings of them doing.

In what job are women paid less than men for doing one hundred percent exactly the same work as men?

I didn't know of any specifically, so I looked it up online, and apparently studies have been done in various fields, and one of the ones with one of the biggest pay gaps is apparently airline pilot. 26.6% difference in base salary is pretty hard to just argue away as being because of difference in airlines men work for versus women (why the disparity there anyway, one might wonder instead), or levels of competence or tenure of employment. I don't know for sure what is going on there. But just ignoring it and saying that the people being surveyed are definitely not doing "the same exact work" without investigating (which I am assuming you haven't done, correct?) doesn't seem any better than claiming that there is definitely something there without investigating and finding out, definitively and with evidence, what that something is (or isn't). Basically - you shouldn't think you are on some kind of "high road" because you like to believe (without having gathered much, if any, actual evidence in fields that display a definite base salary gap) that such gender pay gaps simply don't exist. Go prove it out with some evidence. Until then, stop talking about it implying that you know anything definitive perhaps?

What moral act could not be performed by a person without a religious faith?

I know of only one... but it's "moral" rectitude is only prescribed by the ultimate leader of the religion itself - that being God. And the one I can list basically boils down to "kissing God's butt." This can only be done by a person with religious faith - someone who believes in God in the first place. And as evidence for this, I present that the first 3 (or so, depending on the version of the list) of the 10 commandments are explicitly about keeping God happy and following His rules. And since the 10 commandments are expected to be a teaching tool toward moral rectitude, then these are actually "moral" prescriptions (again, according to the religion itself, which I understand is circular). But there you go... a moral act that can only be performed by a person of religious faith. A foolish endeavor I admit... but it is one.