I’d forgotten about our favorite ex-gay guy until I received a trackback to my entry on Natalie Angier from his blog. It appears that Ben thinks that we silly atheists take delight in our own ignorance of theism, God and Christianity. I’m not entirely certain why he thinks we’re ignorant or that we take delight in said ignorance and he doesn’t bother to elaborate further in his entry. I also don’t understand why he’d start poking a stick at a hornet’s nest after all the complaining he did the last time he attracted the attention of SEB regulars and wasn’t happy with the comments he was receiving. Perhaps he’s bored and figures this will give him something new to complain about as he busies himself removing any comments he might receive.
I always find it amusing when someone tries to tell me how ignorant I am of theism in general and Christianity in particular. Not only was I a member of said groups at one time, but the very nature of the conversations that take place here regularly makes it kind of hard to be ignorant. Not to mention that I’ve probably studied the Bible and Christian theology more than most Christians have both before and after I stopped believing. I won’t even bother pointing out how stupid said comment is when applied to the likes of Decrepit Old Fool.
But, hey, the poor guy can’t even accept himself for who he really is so why should I be surprised that he’s clueless about others?
Have you read G.A. Wells’ The Jesus Myth?
Interesting that the little shit only allows opinions that are in line with his own beliefs. No true discussion. I suppose he’s like most of the exgay assholes. Likes to start a fire but hates to deal with the consequences.
Can someone really be ex-gay? I don’t even knows what they would entail. Would an ex-gay guy be a gay guy who discovered how fun sexual congress with women is? Would that guy really have been gay though, or just bi and ignorant of their own orientation? Maybe I should look at the guy’s site and see what he says about it…. Then again, I don’t really care that much….
Nope, I haven’t read The Jesus Myth yet. It’s another on my long-list of books to look into.
Anyone interested in a good skeptical site on Jesus should check out…
New Testament Studies, Professor Wells…
Crappy designed site with interesting info.
I might be a bit of an odd duck among atheists because I’ve NEVER read the bible outside of a couple of reading assignments in college.
So I guess I am somewhat ignorant about the specifics of christianity. But what I do know about it doesn’t pass the smell test.
Cool, I can quote myself here.
My response…
What Spocko said.
I studied Christianity (and quite a few other faiths, too) so that I could understand what made them ‘tick’. And I studied Christian history and religion as a means to defend myself when I was attacked for being a Pagan back in my youth.
The result is that I know more about Christianity than most Christians, and what I learned about the faith convinced me that it was not my cuppa.
Doesn’t stop ‘em from trying to convert me, though…they just don’t understand ‘no, thank you’.
Sunfell
I’m really a duck out of water when it comes to discussions about religion.
I consider myself fortunate to have been raised from birth as an atheist and having never followed any religion myself, often have trouble understanding those who do.
That said, I have gotten around to reading pretty much the entire Bible, both Old and New Testaments. A feat which has raised more questions than it has presented answers. While some parts of it are genuinely interesting, uplifting and even cool, for the most part it is the least inspiring work of fiction/philosophy I have ever read.
It’s all about endorphins. Everything.
And where penises belong, and don’t belong.
Can location information be derived from a trackback?
I have a growing suspicion that Ben is a front, perhaps for a social studies or theology class, at Taylor University, a private, fundamentalist Christian college in Indiana.
http://dc.indymedia.org/newswire/display/103032/index.php
He never comments on other blogs and I suspect this is because he doesn’t want to leave an IP address.
Then again, conspiracy theorist that I am, I would just love to know for sure.
If he really is a 22 year old Christian who doesn’t want to be gay anymore, I wish him luck. I simply wish he could do it privately with less controversy. Gay homophobes are tortured personalities but they make their own beds and deserve to sleep alone in them.
The IP block of the server proper is assigned to HopOne Internet Corp.(R), with contact phone numbers in the 202 area code. Perhaps Ben is from DC, but currently attending Taylor? Whatever.
Trackbacks do transmit an IP address when they are sent. Ben’s trackback a couple of days ago was: 66.36.229.134. Which, as Elwed says, points back to HopOne in DC. It’s also consistent with every other trackback he’s ever sent.
Not that that means a damned thing, though, as I don’t live anywhere near where SEB is hosted.
Yeah, proxies and all of that make trackback ips almost worthless when it comes to detecting the origins of a user. Maybe this Ben is nothing more than some annoying student someplace with nothing better to do than trying to pick a fight with atheists. Although from what I’ve read he’s doing himself a disfavour by entering intellectual combat unarmed