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  Topic: How Creationism almost failed me out of University, Arguing is addictive< Next Oldest | Next Newest >  
PuckSR



Posts: 314
Joined: Nov. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: June 26 2008,19:24   

I haven't been on this forum in a long time.  In fact, I haven't been on many forums in a long time.  I haven't checked uncommondescent in years.  I also have strongly avoided the topic of Intelligent Design/Creationism in regular life.

Why?

I almost failed out of college.
It wasn't drugs, video games, drinking, or sex.
It wasn't stupidity or laziness.
It was Creationism.

I became wrapped up in arguing with those idiots.  I posted to blogs and websites.  I attended lectures(on ID and creationism) and "special study groups"(Christian study groups).  I learned more about biology than an Electrical Engineer ever should.  I broke up with one girlfriend and started dating a biologist.  I let my studies slip, and I angered some of the faculty at my University who were devoutly religious individuals.  My grades were mediocre and my popularity with my professors was waining.
(I might be exaggerating a little.  In fact, I might be exaggerating a lot)

I had to completely disconnect myself from the argument.  I put aside books like "Misquoting Jesus" and ignored "Expelled".  I joined forums on topics like Linux and Math.  I even quit visiting my aunt(a diehard Creationist).  It wasn't that I hated creationists, but I had started this journey with the opinion that most people are generally intelligent.  I assumed that creationists were simply brainwashed individuals.  I learned that it wasn't true.  It drove me almost insane until I took a break.

It all helped, and a lot of thought and meditation got me back to relaxing.

The moral of my story?
Don't let it get to you.  There are people in this world that are dumber than you can imagine.  If you let them bother you, you will go insane.  It might be relatively simple for someone to go lookup "WD-40" on the internet and find that it isn't "fish oil", but you aren't going to be able to convince some people of that truth.
You might know, from research and experience, that evolution is a observed natural phenomenon...but you won't be able to convince some people of that fact

Just let it slide.
Ignore the idiots and let it slide.
Just step in and stop someone if they think they can drink WD-40  ;)

  
J-Dog



Posts: 4402
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: June 26 2008,19:40   

Based upon your heart-warming and touching post, you DO NOT, under ANY circumstances, want to read the FTK Thread.

Don't do it.

--------------
Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

UD is an Unnatural Douchemagnet. - richardthughes 7/11

  
Chayanov



Posts: 289
Joined: Dec. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: June 26 2008,19:41   

I feel for you. I had a similar experience when I was getting my master's degree and I had to go cold-turkey away from the message boards and newsgroups. Fortunately I really did learn my lesson and when I got back into it a few years later, it was pretty much just to mock them and it didn't bother me so much that "someone on the internet was wrong."

I learned that I could read something really maddening, but if I didn't respond to it right away, then I could just let it go. I'll save the education for my students and not waste my time on those who really aren't interested in it. I'd rather laugh than lecture, anyway.

--------------
Help! Marxist literary critics are following me!

  
Lou FCD



Posts: 5455
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: June 26 2008,20:28   

Quote (PuckSR @ June 26 2008,20:24)
Why?

I almost failed out of college.
It wasn't drugs, video games, drinking, or sex.
It wasn't stupidity or laziness.
It was Creationism.

I can respect a man who flunks out because of sex.

Creationism, not so much.

ETA:  Hi.  My name is Lou, and I am a TARD addict.

Edited by Lou FCD on June 26 2008,21:29

--------------
“Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas?

Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend

   
PuckSR



Posts: 314
Joined: Nov. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: June 26 2008,20:29   

Yeah, that is where I basically got...

If someone is honestly confused, I might try to correct them...but as soon as I realize that they are insane, I have to start mocking them.

The really bad thing is that now it is hard to read a lot of these forums.  I try to remain apathetic, and that provides very little motivation for wading through all of the drivel.

  
midwifetoad



Posts: 4003
Joined: Mar. 2008

(Permalink) Posted: June 26 2008,20:44   

As part of my 12 step plan, I will not respond to this thread, no matter how tempted.

--------------
Any version of ID consistent with all the evidence is indistinguishable from evolution.

  
Reciprocating Bill



Posts: 4265
Joined: Oct. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: June 26 2008,21:34   

When I was a boy, we walked 20 miles to school up hill both ways barefoot in the snow for SEX, DRUGS and ROCK 'N' ROLL. And we LIKED it.

None of this newfangled tardaholism.

--------------
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

  
Lou FCD



Posts: 5455
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: June 26 2008,21:40   

Quote (Reciprocating Bill @ June 26 2008,22:34)
When I was a boy, we walked 20 miles to school up hill both ways barefoot in the snow for SEX, DRUGS and ROCK 'N' ROLL. And we LIKED it.

None of this newfangled tardaholism.

As did we, but in the frozen tundra of Pennsyltucky, we also had ravenous, starving, snarling wolves chasing us for our lunch money.

--------------
“Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas?

Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend

   
jeannot



Posts: 1201
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,02:28   

I find creationism/ID rather entertaining, perhaps because I live in Europe where it is not an issue, but actually, I almost never read what they say "directly".
I mostly skip their posts and jump to the answers from reasonable people. I never go to UD or creationist sites.
Lying scums like Sal and others can make me lose my cool, I prefer not imagine how I would behave if I had to face one of them.
Watching them being ridiculed by Zach or others it much funnier.

  
Assassinator



Posts: 479
Joined: Nov. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,05:28   

Maybe it's because I'm just a naive young dog (most probably), but for some reason I find it difficult to mock those ignorant folks. For some reason I keep trying to explain things to them, apperantly it won't come through that they really will never ever change, wich is something I can't understand, thus I keep trying even móre. I keep being fascinated with there crap, why...no idea. Where does that magical attraction to the TARD come from, it's hyyyypooooontiiiisiiiiing. Hopefully it won't screw up my Bachelor in Journalism next year, we should set up the Anonymous Tardaholics ;)

  
Amadan



Posts: 1337
Joined: Jan. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,05:40   

Quote (Reciprocating Bill @ June 26 2008,21:34)
When I was a boy, we walked 20 miles to school up hill both ways barefoot in the snow for SEX, DRUGS and ROCK 'N' ROLL. And we LIKED it.

None of this newfangled tardaholism.

In a words: Boarding school

- A tinny cassette recorder cranking out a 3rd generation copy of Zep III (subject to vanishification by priests/rapacious 6th years/invisible felonious phantasms) covered the R 'n Roll bit.

- Someone once sneaked in a doobie but I only heard about it a few weeks later. So much for drugs.

- Sex? Isn't that when they ate ther dunner in Portadown?

I join in this fundie-baiting & tard bashing because it's actually important. (J-Dog, stop giggling)

While we Yurpeans tend to smile indulgently at the US Kultur wars, it's sobering to look at the damage the tards can do when someone lets them drive. A few anti-vaccination flakes in the UK have caused MMR take-up rates to fall to 70% or so, and kids die as a result. Using evilution as a wedge issue is an ideal way to give these morons political clout, and (witness last week's referendum result here) the damage you can cause with fear and ignorance is huge.

Not being a scientist, I leave it to Zachriel, Wes, et al to demolish the substance of what they have to say.

As their greatest threat is posed when they convince otherwise reasonable people to agree with them, I see it as my mission to help people break down in contemptuous snickering whenever they open their mouth.

Also, my charitable instincts are inherited from the good folks who used to pay to be allowed to poke sticks at the inmates of Bedlam.

--------------
"People are always looking for natural selection to generate random mutations" - Densye  4-4-2011
JoeG BTW dumbass- some variations help ensure reproductive fitness so they cannot be random wrt it.

   
Louis



Posts: 6436
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,06:30   

Quote (Lou FCD @ June 27 2008,03:40)
Quote (Reciprocating Bill @ June 26 2008,22:34)
When I was a boy, we walked 20 miles to school up hill both ways barefoot in the snow for SEX, DRUGS and ROCK 'N' ROLL. And we LIKED it.

None of this newfangled tardaholism.

As did we, but in the frozen tundra of Pennsyltucky, we also had ravenous, starving, snarling wolves chasing us for our lunch money.

Well of course WE had it tough. I used to have to....

{sound of Four Yorkshiremen rip off}

...and you tell that to the kids of today and they wouldn't believe you.

Anyway, I think Puck has raised a valid and important issue. One I'd like to expand on too, especially in relation to something Assassinator said.

Some (possibly tongue in cheek) definitions:

Messdebating: The act of debating/discussing an issue on a message board with someone DEMONSTRABLY a) incorrect and b) ineducable, see "Kook" and "Fuckwit".

Tardaholism: The continual urge to not only see what the Kook or Fuckwit says next but to in some way encourage them to ever greater heights of tard.

Kook: An individual passionately expressing a demonstrably erroneous or false claim. Possibly, even probably, correctable on the basis of evidence. All people are at some point in their lives guilty of kookery (the act of behaving like a kook) to some extent. Many however learn from this experience and therefore do not progress to...

Fuckwit: Apologies for the profanity but I can think of no better word. A kook who has extended his or her defense of a demonstrably erroneous or false claim with behaviour of a very characteristic, and unpleasantly counterproductive, nature. There is no hope of correcting a fuckwit, they aren't playing the same game as everyone else. Classic hallmarks of fuckwittery (the act of behaving like a fuckwit) include repeated use of the same logical fallacy despite having that fallacy etched onto their forehead it's so clearly demonstrable, rampant intellectual dishonesty, profound love of the argumentum ad hominem (not merely abuse, but the logical fallacy), red herring addiction, persecution complexes, bad faith argumentation etc.

Tard: 1) A demonstrably erroneous or false claim repeated with ever increasing stridency. 2) Fuckwittery by a very slightly more polute name.

So definitions over with (and please feel free to add/modify accordingly), what are the problems of messdebation?

I would argue that the major potential problems of messdebation are as follows:

1) It takes time. However small, however insignificant that time might be, or however excellent one;s time management skills are, messdebation occupyies a finite quantity of very valuable time. In the case of evolutionary biology arguments on the web, some very erudite, educated and professional people spend their time doing this, and perhaps their efforts could be better channelled. Perhaps excessive messdebation, as mentioned by Puck above, can have adverse consequences.

2) When one wrestles with a pig all one acheives is a happy pig and muddy clothing. Some of the kooks and fuckwits encountered are quite deliberately trying to distract and annoy. We are playing their game by even engaging them.

3) Not all publicity is good publicity. Deborah Lipstadt has, very correctly in my view, laid out the case for not debating Holocaust deniers. This for me is the hardest issue to resolve because people are damned if they do, damned if they don't. I think there is room for a plurality of tactics across the group. I think that thinking as a group is better here than as a collection of individuals. Debating creationists is almost always a futile act, however, it does have several positives. There are the occasional epic public takes downs of creationists, it shows that scientists are willing to engage public concerns (a very good thing) and it exposes the creationist claims for what they are. However it also provides the creationists with a public platform, grants them a credibility they do not deserve and have not earned, and often backfires due to venue choices etc.

Of course not debating leads to cries of arrogance, fear etc etc etc. So whatever happens bad publicity arises. If one does enter into debate then at least one can "do it for the lurkers".

4) Personal consequences. As much as people might like to pretend that the online world is somehow hermetically sealed from real life, this simply isn't the case. At the other end of the internet is another real person really typing on a real keyboard just like I really am. Whilst abuse and generalised nastiness can upset people, I'm less worried about that (surprise surprise, can't take heat, don't enter kitchen) than I am the harm such debates can do the rational debater. The axe is dulled by the tree it cuts down after all.

I think there can be enormous positive benefits however. I for one have investigated topics I never would have unless I got involved in online debates, and I've learned a huge amount from various having my arse handed to me when I've been wrong and handing other people's theirs when they have. All in all it's been a positive learning experience.

However, have I remained unaffected by this? Has my attitude to other people harshened because of my online interactions? I would have to confess that it has. Never one to suffer fools gladly, I have become both on and offline far less tolerant of abject kookery and fuckwittery than I was. Maybe that's a natural part of the aging process, but I'd be hard pushed to demonstrate that messdebating has had no effect at all, and would find it quite easy to demonstrate its effects in at least a prima facie manner. Is this a good or a bad thing I wonder?

Anyway that's far from a complete rendition of my views on the subject, but it's a slightly comedy opener for anyone who might be vaguely interested.

Louis

--------------
Bye.

  
Lou FCD



Posts: 5455
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,07:09   

Quote (Assassinator @ June 27 2008,06:28)
Maybe it's because I'm just a naive young dog (most probably), but for some reason I find it difficult to mock those ignorant folks. For some reason I keep trying to explain things to them, apperantly it won't come through that they really will never ever change, wich is something I can't understand, thus I keep trying even móre.

Assassinator, There is hope for some of them.  Some of them can be rescued, 'saved' if you will allow me to borrow from their common vocabulary.  

So this is not a flaw in your character to be overcome, but rather perhaps a reflection of something we old salts have lost, and we are the lesser for it.

Or maybe it's not even that we have lost something after all, but rather added to our repertoire, and some of those 'lost' will need the 'you' in us to explain things, and some of them will need the 'us' in us to explain things.

Forgive the pre-coffee pseudophilosophical meanderings of a guy who might not be all there in the first place.

Good morning to you all.  (And good afternoon to those of you in the appropriate time zones.)

--------------
“Why do creationists have such a hard time with commas?

Linky“. ~ Steve Story, Legend

   
Erasmus, FCD



Posts: 6349
Joined: June 2007

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,07:18   

Hi I am Erasmus and I am a tard-a-holic.

Louis has more than enough to say on the subject (jeez you ramble along like some kind of daily science professor atheist).  I just wanted to point that in no way is it possible that he is actually sorry about the profanity.

Also, it certainly goes home with you.  I can't wait to see the next stupid thing that one of these fools manages to do.  That also goes for my local newspaper and several other forums and outlets.  The god damned intarwebz have accelerated my tardaholism, but I'd say I've always had a healthy portion.  For instance I have collected pseudoscience books for years, long before I met you guys and started mainlining this shit.

but it seems to me that, despite louis' taxonomy that implies lost causes, correcting self-deluded fuckwits is a pretty honorable thing to do with your time.  just make sure your homework is done and the mater bushes get watered.  don't forget to buy your wife flowers and play with your younguns before surfing uncommonly stupid.

--------------
You're obviously illiterate as hell. Peach, bro.-FtK

Finding something hard to believe based on the evidence, is science.-JoeG

the odds of getting some loathsome taint are low-- Gordon E Mullings Manjack Heights Montserrat

I work on molecular systems with pathway charts and such.-Giggles

  
Louis



Posts: 6436
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,07:29   

Quote (Erasmus, FCD @ June 27 2008,13:18)
Hi I am Erasmus and I am a tard-a-holic.

Louis has more than enough to say on the subject (jeez you ramble along like some kind of daily science professor atheist).  I just wanted to point that in no way is it possible that he is actually sorry about the profanity.

Also, it certainly goes home with you.  I can't wait to see the next stupid thing that one of these fools manages to do.  That also goes for my local newspaper and several other forums and outlets.  The god damned intarwebz have accelerated my tardaholism, but I'd say I've always had a healthy portion.  For instance I have collected pseudoscience books for years, long before I met you guys and started mainlining this shit.

but it seems to me that, despite louis' taxonomy that implies lost causes, correcting self-deluded fuckwits is a pretty honorable thing to do with your time.  just make sure your homework is done and the mater bushes get watered.  don't forget to buy your wife flowers and play with your younguns before surfing uncommonly stupid.

I fucking well am fucking sorry for the fucking profanity....waaaaaaaaiiiiitt a minute! Did i fuck up?

I don't think it's ALL hopeless, just that there are some hopeless cases out there. I share Assassinator's optimism, I think that the majority of people are peferfectly capable of understanding the basic elements of science should they so desire. What I have to remain curious about is the motivations of people who actively seek to oppose scientific data due to ideological considerations. As with many things, I think there's a spectrum!

Louis

--------------
Bye.

  
J-Dog



Posts: 4402
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,07:48   

Well, Jeez, if you want to get serious about this...

I'm NOT a tardaholic too - I could put this down and walk away, anytime I want to.  I don't have to be here, you know!  It's like when I smoked - I quit every night.

This board is important because it helps me to deal with the ID / Creo arguments, and to give DaveScot & Dembski their due, they are smart people,.  Deluded, but smart, and their is a huge lesson to be learned just from this.

I find it's helpful because most IDCists that you run into are not as organized and well - reasoned in their arguments, so watching the scientists among this board demolish them is an education in itself, and well worth the time.

Also, watching the Truly Gifted Master of Insult - yeah, like Louis, work their magic demolishing fuckwits with a turn of a phrase or cogent fact is also worth the price of admission.
Demolishing Design Demons with a laugh & a fact- priceless!

The icing on the cake, is that there ARE people, and members of this board, that have come here for answers, and come to see through the tard that they were indoctrinated with from their Pastors, parents and religion and began to see the world as it really is.  And I think the last one counts for the most.

So, Davie, I guess we were all front pants-loaded to Deal With The Design Demons?

--------------
Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

UD is an Unnatural Douchemagnet. - richardthughes 7/11

  
Mr_Christopher



Posts: 1238
Joined: Jan. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,10:33   

Moderation is the key.  And I have never attempted to sway a creationist, never will either.  Might as well perform your own root canals.

Many people are dumb and it's easier to laugh at them then try and change their minds.

--------------
Uncommon Descent is a moral cesspool, a festering intellectual ghetto that intoxicates and degrades its inhabitants - Stephen Matheson

  
Bob O'H



Posts: 2564
Joined: Oct. 2005

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,11:35   

Quote
Moderation is the key.

I'm sure The Banninator would agree with these words.

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It is fun to dip into the various threads to watch cluelessness at work in the hands of the confident exponent. - Soapy Sam (so say we all)

   
American Saddlebred



Posts: 111
Joined: May 2005

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,12:42   

Quote (PuckSR @ June 26 2008,19:24)
I haven't been on this forum in a long time.  In fact, I haven't been on many forums in a long time.  I haven't checked uncommondescent in years.  I also have strongly avoided the topic of Intelligent Design/Creationism in regular life.

Why?

I almost failed out of college.
It wasn't drugs, video games, drinking, or sex.
It wasn't stupidity or laziness.
It was Creationism.

I became wrapped up in arguing with those idiots.  I posted to blogs and websites.  I attended lectures(on ID and creationism) and "special study groups"(Christian study groups).  I learned more about biology than an Electrical Engineer ever should.  I broke up with one girlfriend and started dating a biologist.  I let my studies slip, and I angered some of the faculty at my University who were devoutly religious individuals.  My grades were mediocre and my popularity with my professors was waining.
(I might be exaggerating a little.  In fact, I might be exaggerating a lot)

I had to completely disconnect myself from the argument.  I put aside books like "Misquoting Jesus" and ignored "Expelled".  I joined forums on topics like Linux and Math.  I even quit visiting my aunt(a diehard Creationist).  It wasn't that I hated creationists, but I had started this journey with the opinion that most people are generally intelligent.  I assumed that creationists were simply brainwashed individuals.  I learned that it wasn't true.  It drove me almost insane until I took a break.

It all helped, and a lot of thought and meditation got me back to relaxing.

The moral of my story?
Don't let it get to you.  There are people in this world that are dumber than you can imagine.  If you let them bother you, you will go insane.  It might be relatively simple for someone to go lookup "WD-40" on the internet and find that it isn't "fish oil", but you aren't going to be able to convince some people of that truth.
You might know, from research and experience, that evolution is a observed natural phenomenon...but you won't be able to convince some people of that fact

Just let it slide.
Ignore the idiots and let it slide.
Just step in and stop someone if they think they can drink WD-40  ;)

I went through almost the exact same thing.  Except I was also doing the other 3 things you mentioned =P (yes I actually would be sitting there smoking a bowl reading PT).  I generally tend to lurk (unless somehow horses come up) as I don't have a science degree.

I started going to all the Creo/ID lectures I could find flyers for, I even read a few of their crap books.  Then I would read many of the scathing reviews available to me.  Eventually, I just went straight to the reviews =).

But I take a much more aggressive approach.  When creationists try to spew their nonsense at me, I will argue right back at them (attacking flood geology, IC and such).  Not that I ever think I can sway their opinions (although I sincerely wish I could).  I just like slapping their "bible glasses" off their faces.

You seem to have gotten involved in this "debate" in an almosted identical manner to how I did.  I have actually considered becoming a creationist speaker.  I really think I could argue for it just as well as I could argue against it.  There has to be a huge degree of insincerity involved in giving "science" lectures at churches.

   
Cedric Katesby



Posts: 55
Joined: Aug. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,12:45   

I also am NOT a Tardaholic.
Daily checking out PT first thing in the morning (for over three years straight) and hunting down third-rate obscure ID friendly web-sites so that I can bait the people there DOES NOT MEAN that I have a Tard abuse problem.

Everybody does that.
Right?

(......)

Ok, maybe not everybody but....

Look, I just need a little something to get me by.
A little taste. It's a natural thing.
All the kids are doing it nowdays.
Really.

(...............)

It's not my fault.
Lenny, PZ, Louis, Steve Steve, G.H., PvM and the rest of them!
It's their fault.
Them and their sarcastic wit, their droll humour, their merciless disembowelling of creationist arguments with scientific explanations that even a Humanties casualty such as myself can grasp and then use later in after-dinner conversation.

I...I was led astray.

Same time tomorrow?

  
J-Dog



Posts: 4402
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,13:36   

Quote (Cedric Katesby @ June 27 2008,12:45)
Same time tomorrow?

Absolutely!  There's just no telling what Depths of Duplicity and Depravity Dembksi, Dave or Densye will dig up next.  

We owe it to the kids, right?

--------------
Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

UD is an Unnatural Douchemagnet. - richardthughes 7/11

  
dnmlthr



Posts: 565
Joined: Mar. 2008

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,14:54   

For a long time I, a mere engineering student and washout from the software industry, tried to engage the likes of ftk in a friendly and understanding manner. I even felt more sorry for Dembski than anything else.

As of late, I feel that ambition waning more and more due to the dishonesty and frankly bullshit tactics employed by the pro-tard faction. Tard burnout? Quite possibly. Some people just seem impervious to reason and logic and I find it harder and harder to maintain a friendly demeanor towards disseminators of bullshit.

At any rate, I find this place a refuge where bullshit is confronted head on with a suitable side dish of sarcasm and scorn, as is sorely needed, even if I lurk way more than I engage.

Hugs and kisses,
dnmlthr

--------------
Guess what? I don't give a flying f*ck how "science works" - Ftk

  
Assassinator



Posts: 479
Joined: Nov. 2007

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,18:21   

Quote (Louis @ June 27 2008,07:29)
Quote (Erasmus @ FCD,June 27 2008,13:18)
Hi I am Erasmus and I am a tard-a-holic.

Louis has more than enough to say on the subject (jeez you ramble along like some kind of daily science professor atheist).  I just wanted to point that in no way is it possible that he is actually sorry about the profanity.

Also, it certainly goes home with you.  I can't wait to see the next stupid thing that one of these fools manages to do.  That also goes for my local newspaper and several other forums and outlets.  The god damned intarwebz have accelerated my tardaholism, but I'd say I've always had a healthy portion.  For instance I have collected pseudoscience books for years, long before I met you guys and started mainlining this shit.

but it seems to me that, despite louis' taxonomy that implies lost causes, correcting self-deluded fuckwits is a pretty honorable thing to do with your time.  just make sure your homework is done and the mater bushes get watered.  don't forget to buy your wife flowers and play with your younguns before surfing uncommonly stupid.

I fucking well am fucking sorry for the fucking profanity....waaaaaaaaiiiiitt a minute! Did i fuck up?

I don't think it's ALL hopeless, just that there are some hopeless cases out there. I share Assassinator's optimism, I think that the majority of people are peferfectly capable of understanding the basic elements of science should they so desire. What I have to remain curious about is the motivations of people who actively seek to oppose scientific data due to ideological considerations. As with many things, I think there's a spectrum!

Louis

Wow, I never thought I would be viewed as an optimist really :P Because what I actually ment is that, although I keep trying, I do know that it's useless anyway. Besides, if someone is genuinly interested or really confused and really wánts to learn something, he/she isn't a tard really. Maybe that defines that wierd species we call the Tard: a skull as thick as Dembski's bullcrap.

  
J-Dog



Posts: 4402
Joined: Dec. 2006

(Permalink) Posted: June 27 2008,19:22   

Quote (dnmlthr @ June 27 2008,14:54)
For a long time I, a mere engineering student and washout from the software industry, tried to engage the likes of ftk in a friendly and understanding manner. I even felt more sorry for Dembski than anything else.

As of late, I feel that ambition waning more and more due to the dishonesty and frankly bullshit tactics employed by the pro-tard faction. Tard burnout? Quite possibly. Some people just seem impervious to reason and logic and I find it harder and harder to maintain a friendly demeanor towards disseminators of bullshit.

At any rate, I find this place a refuge where bullshit is confronted head on with a suitable side dish of sarcasm and scorn, as is sorely needed, even if I lurk way more than I engage.

Hugs and kisses,
dnmlthr

Wow, thanks for the hugs and kisses!

Uh.... So, would you say you more closely resemble, Angelina Jolie or DaveScot?

(got to know which end to pucker up you know)

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Come on Tough Guy, do the little dance of ID impotence you do so well. - Louis to Joe G 2/10

Gullibility is not a virtue - Quidam on Dembski's belief in the Bible Code Faith Healers & ID 7/08

UD is an Unnatural Douchemagnet. - richardthughes 7/11

  
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