Randall, for the last time, quoting Bible versus is pointless. OK?

les,

it should not be pointless to those who post here that believe in the bible??? should it?? 

the verse was not directed toward the infamous free-thinkers…

I think it can be useful to quote the Bible (or any other text), just as long as you don’t try to use it as an argument-breaker:  “Well, the Bible says this, so it must be right, and that settles it!” But I don’t think that’s what Randall was trying to do.

I suppose, but it would help if it was more than just the Bible quote with no indication of who it’s intended for or what the point is. I apologize for my grumpiness, but I get lots of email which is composed mainly of Bible quotes I’ve read time and again as though this is going to make me suddenly convert and it gets a little tiring after awhile.

Les, there was no ambiguity about randall’s post. It was as nice a Christian put-down as I’ve ever seen.

Looking back on it now I can see that. I admit, I was being grumpy and I responded before I fully considered what I had read and for that I offer Randall my apologies.

les,

no offense taken, i assumed you just thought i was tossing out the random verse in hopes snag the wayward atheist.  that is not my style anyway.

and in case someone thinks that was judgmental...not judging just sharing from experience!!

See Les, people will go out of their way just to hop on here and bash me. There hasn’t been anything but crap on this whole thread, and it’s got how many posts? Care to rethink your original comment to me? Forget it, you’re never wrong, don’t bother.

Anything I write that might possibly be construed as self-effacing is disingenuous, but anything that might be taken completely out of context to mean that I’m prideful, well, that must be how I really feel. Sure.

Thanks for the laugh.

Randall since you’re in Proverbs, why don’t you try 26:9.

Christians arguing amongst themselves on an atheist blog.

Is this some sort of sign?

I have to admit that it’s increasingly more interesting to analyze the ‘David’ posts for technique.

A recent change is the switch from unabashed ad hominim attacks to the portrayal of a victim of unprovoked attack.

Then there’s the definition game. I won’t bother digging up an example.

Let’s not forget the chain of “arguments” that flow from a rather suprising base assumption (e.g. “The law already provides for equity, anyone can marry anyone of the opposite sex.").

I also note a lack of polymorphism. For maximum confusion, ‘David’ should evolve his base assumptions, rather than relying on repetition and attrition ("And I’ve written this so many times I can’t believe I’m going to do it again").

See Les, people will go out of their way just to hop on here and bash me. There hasn’t been anything but crap on this whole thread, and it’s got how many posts? Care to rethink your original comment to me? Forget it, you’re never wrong, don’t bother.

If you say so, though I’d argue it was your attempt at being flippant that resulted in the rest of this thread coming to pass.

As for me never being wrong all I can say is I believe if you’ll scroll up two responses before yours you’ll see I’m not only admitting that I was wrong, but I also apologized for it. OK, I didn’t flat out say “I was wrong,” but I thought the meaning was clear. Randall caught it easily enough.

Anything I write that might possibly be construed as self-effacing is disingenuous, but anything that might be taken completely out of context to mean that I’m prideful, well, that must be how I really feel. Sure.

We’re talking perceptions here, David. Sometimes our intent isn’t clear to others and it affects how we are perceived. This is especially true in a text-only medium where nuances such as vocal tone and body language are impossible to consider. Smilies evolved as one means of trying to compensate for that loss.

Perhaps you’re just not used to dealing with people whose perception of what you have to say would be so different from your intent, I can’t really say, but I’m pretty used to it by now myself. Part of the reason I’m as verbose as I tend to be is an effort to try and get my intent across so I’m perceived in a manner that’s at least semi-close to how I want to be perceived.

I’m not always successful. I’ve been told I’m racist, bigoted, narrow-minded, cold-hearted, arrogant, shallow, biased, self-centered, inconsiderate and any of a host of other negative things. Truth is, I can own up to being at least some of those things some of the time (particularly arrogant) while I feel some of those traits are not really applicable to me.

When I care enough to change how others perceive me I do so by trying to take into consideration what I may have said to give them that perception and then I change my approach and attempt to explain why I disagree with that perception. I don’t accomplish that by attacking and dismissing the person’s perception of me, as you did with your first response to Elwedriddsche, but through doing what I am doing now: trying to explain why I said what I did and what my intent truly is. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t, but then sometimes I care enough to try and other times I don’t care enough to bother.

Believe it or not, the fact that I put as much effort into trying to explain my point of view to you in responses such as this is actually a form of a compliment. It means I respect you enough to try and explain where I’m coming from. Granted my respect is probably no big prize to you, but if you want to consider what my intent truly is then it’s something to consider. If all I wanted to do was bash you then my entries would be a lot shorter and a lot more amusing, at least to me.

Thanks for the laugh.

You’re welcome. Not like I haven’t gotten a few chuckles out of some of your posts so it’s only fair I return the favor.

Les, a text-only medium that lacks the social context of eye contact, tone of voice, body language and the like is predestined to lead to failures of communication. To make matters worse, people tend to be less inhibited using this kind of medium than they would ever dare in person.

In the case of ‘David’, I personally see no evidence of an honest attempt to straighten out misunderstandings, as opposed to obvious attempts at chain yanking. I would give David the benefit of doubt if it weren’t for the self-congratulating remarks about us being thin-skinned. I will grant, however, that the real-life David could conceivably be quite different than the impression of his posts leads one to believe.

Did I read this aright?  Did David actually come out and say, “WAAAAAH, they’re PICKING on me” ???

This is getting better all the time.

I’m not always successful. I’ve been told I’m racist, bigoted, narrow-minded, cold-hearted, arrogant, shallow, biased, self-centered, inconsiderate and any of a host of other negative things.

Oh, now Les, don’t YOU start your braggin’.  Otherwise I’ll have to dust off MY testimonials, and some of them would make you want to disinfect your eyeballs with butane.

Can I just say: Ouch? What an unpleasant mental picture THAT conjures up.