Salamantis: You confuse and conflate methodological materialism with metaphysical materialism. Empirical sciences must assume the first in their empirical investigations, but this does not entail the assumption of the second. Science does not claim that the metaphysical does not exist, only that the empirical tools available to it are useless to investigate any extraphysical realms, so they remain outside the purview of the discipline…

Errr…I didn’t actually confuse the two. I pointed out that science is a social endeavor, and that social endeavors have subcultures. I did no say that science rejected metaphysical assumptions, I did say that it was methodologically founded on one. (snip nonsense).(snip more nonsense)

distinguished an actual giraffe neck (non-meme) from the spoken or written word phrase ‘giraffe neck’ (meme). The actual giraffe neck might possibly be a meme for someone, (snip blather)
Right. So you can’t dstinguish a meme from a non meme. That’s what I said.

(snip strawman)Nope. There is such a discipline is philosophy, which is neither science nor religion.

I agree. But to some people, its a religion. You sound like a religionist, replete with sacred cow and hero worship.

I should know; I have a BA degree in it and it was my major MA track (cum laude, outstanding student award, college of arts and sciences). And I also studied philosophy of science and comparative religion at the graduate level, too. Which is how I know you’re full of shit, and exactly how full of shit you are, when you dare to endeavor to opine concerning philosophical matters and where the demarcation line between philosophy, science and religion lies.

LOL! I knew you had to have advanced degrees in something. If you studied graduate philosophy of science, at a Universty, you should ask for your money back.