Reciprocating Bill
Posts: 4265
Joined: Oct. 2006
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| Quote (ERV @ Dec. 18 2007,11:39) | | The behavior I have witnessed of Dembski in person and online is not indicative of a healthy individual. I have a family member with anti-social personality disorders, and I saw red flags with D. right off the bat, and, it is well known that people with mental health issues can go untreated until they 'break' because they hide behind religion. |
Perhaps. But there is a huge gulf between "not being a healthy individual" and, for example, being diagnosible with an antisocial personality disorder or, much more seriously, as a sociopath or "Cleckley psychopath," as indicated by many of the symptoms you tick off. The latter are quite dangerous individuals, have no need of hiding behind religion (although may manipulate by means of religion), and usually have a long history of frank criminality that, by definition, was evident in childhood. Dembski simply does not display any indications of this level of pathology, and it doesn't serve any purpose in this debate to so assert. BTW, "breaks" are not characteristic of psychopaths - they are cold inidividuals who experience little conflict or subjective psychological distress, and are typically further from a "break" than either you or I.
That said, vis the baffling behaviors WAD does exhibit, I find his streak of self-defeating behaviors to be most striking. Reading some of his earlier papers one is struck by the articulate writing style, seriousness of purpose, and the (superficial) credibility he displays therein. I find it difficult to square that earlier Dembski with the looney bin that has been Uncommon Descent over the last several years, and the poor judgment he has displayed since launching UD.
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Myth: Something that never was true, and always will be.
"The truth will set you free. But not until it is finished with you."
- David Foster Wallace
"Here’s a clue. Snarky banalities are not a substitute for saying something intelligent. Write that down."
- Barry Arrington
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