spendius
 
  1  
Wed 23 Feb, 2011 06:22 pm
@JTT,
I have JT but I don't like mentioning things as crass as that.
Ionus
 
  1  
Wed 23 Feb, 2011 06:22 pm
@reasoning logic,
There is already a church for atheists. They meet at members houses for dinner and discuss life without a God. It was started in New Zealand, but hasn't grown much at all .
hingehead
 
  1  
Wed 23 Feb, 2011 06:22 pm
@JTT,
Quote:
I don't think any of you "off topic" whiners have noticed just how much time you spend off topic, whining about being off topic.

Hey JTT - Stay on topic! Very Happy

If it wasn't for the off topic posters I'd have a page of 'user ignoreds'
0 Replies
 
Setanta
 
  2  
Wed 23 Feb, 2011 06:24 pm
Jesus, Boss, i don't have anybody "on ignore," but confronted with the multiple posts of jackasses whose drivel i don't read, i'm pretty much in the same boat.
spendius
 
  1  
Wed 23 Feb, 2011 06:25 pm
@Ionus,
Quote:
There is already a church for atheists. They meet at members houses for dinner and discuss life without a God. It was started in New Zealand, but hasn't grown much at all .


That's probably because they made it too obvious, after sipping some 9% wine, what they had come for.
0 Replies
 
JTT
 
  0  
Wed 23 Feb, 2011 07:11 pm
@Setanta,
Nor have any of you "ignore" whiners noticed just how much time you spend talking about those who you have on 'ignore'.

Or in the case of Setanta, a reformed ignorist, half of his postings talk about what an enlightened ignorist he is, after he decided that using the ignore feature smacked too much of the juvenile for his "adult" demeanor.
0 Replies
 
edgarblythe
 
  6  
Wed 23 Feb, 2011 07:53 pm
An Atheist in the Woods

An atheist was taking a walk through the woods. "What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!" he said to himself.

As he continued walking alongside the river he heard a rustling in the bushes. Turning to look, he saw a 7 foot grizzly charging towards him. He ran as fast as he could up the path. Looking over his shoulder he saw that the bear was closing in on him. His heart was pumping frantically and he tried to run even faster. He tripped and fell on the ground. He rolled over to pick himself up but saw the bear raising his paw to take a swipe at him.

At that instant the Atheist cried out: "Oh my God!..."

Time stopped. The bear froze. The forest was silent. It was then that a bright light shone upon the man and a voice came out of the sky saying,

"You deny my existence for all of these years, teach others that I don't exist and even credit creation to a cosmic accident. Do you expect me to help you out of this predicament? Am I to count you as a believer?"

The atheist looked directly into the light, "It would be hypocritical of me to suddenly ask you to treat me as a Christian now, but perhaps, could you make the BEAR a Christian?"

"Very well," said the voice. The light went out. And the sounds of the forest resumed.

The bear lowered his paw, bowed his head and spoke,

"Lord, bless this food which I am about to receive and for which I am truly thankful."

Setanta
 
  1  
Wed 23 Feb, 2011 08:09 pm
hehehehehehehe . . .
0 Replies
 
hingehead
 
  1  
Wed 23 Feb, 2011 08:24 pm
@edgarblythe,
Classic!
0 Replies
 
JTT
 
  1  
Wed 23 Feb, 2011 11:50 pm
@edgarblythe,
I've heard it before but it was still mighty good. Thanks for the chuckle, Edgar.
JTT
 
  2  
Wed 23 Feb, 2011 11:56 pm
@spendius,
You consider honesty to be crass, Spendi. Strange days indeed!
spendius
 
  0  
Thu 24 Feb, 2011 05:30 am
@JTT,
In the case I was referring to yes. It was informing people of something one would expect them to know which verges on a claim to have more acute observational powers than they do. Which is a bit crass really.

If I was to be honest about it I would say that continuous whining on and on about people being off topic from a person who has a marked tendency to be off topic him or herself denotes a level of narcissism and social ineptitude which would cause any sensible lady to take precautions concerning the avoidance of their company. It generally means that they are uncomfortable when not steering the conversation and being the centre of attention and that they find anything they don't already know to be uninteresting.

In the pub the conversation ranges over a bewildering array of subject matter from minute to minute and anyone who pompously declaims that "you've changed the subject" soon find themselves cut out of the loop. And I must admit that I see a lot of similarities between conversation here and in the pub.

People who habitually do that sort of thing cannot avoid finding their mind becoming narrower and narrower until it reaches the point where it easily slips through a crack in the floorboards and disappears from view. There is a whole mine of useful information to be gleaned from off-topicitis from which they deliberately exclude themselves so I suppose it is just another variation of the Ignore syndrome which I assume is derived from burying the face in Mom's apron during childhood at every frustrating setback and being rewarded by a petting. Some psychologists say that it is caused by fear of the incomprehensible complexity of the nasty world and encouraged by the sort of thing Philip Larkin was considering when he wrote This Be The Verse--

Quote:
They **** you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.


Such people easily come to believe after many years of practice that there is no such thing as irreducible complexity because as they think they understand everything in their own experience they believe scientists can understand every other experience if only there are enough of them and the funds are made available. One only needs to hear them pontificating about an object like Libya to see how silly they are. They think that a sperm fertilising an egg is all they need to know about conception which leads them to convenient, for them, anti-evolutionary mechanics of the simplest sort which leads them to attack Christian teaching which leads them to atheism. (I bet you thought I was off topic.)

Rabbiting about off-topic and recourse to Ignore, with its range of obvious variations to avoid the post they are pretending to respond to, an insult to our intelligence, is infantile, self-defeating and stupid. If atheists do it more than most it is a very good reason in itself for being wary of the belief.




0 Replies
 
spendius
 
  0  
Thu 24 Feb, 2011 06:05 am
@JTT,
No joke which relies upon impossible conjectures can ever be any good. Henry Fielding inserted an essay into Tom Jones about the matter. Unlikely conditions are acceptable, even very unlikely ones, but impossible ones are ridiculous.

They are circular in the sense that the inspiration for the joke is confirmed by it.

Quote:
An atheist was taking a walk through the woods. "What majestic trees! What powerful rivers! What beautiful animals!" he said to himself.


No atheist who is familiar with atheism's principle martyr, the Marquis de Sade, would ever say such a thing about horrible nature. Look how trees crush the life out of smaller plants which had the ill-luck to germinate beneath its foliage by attempting to steal all the sunlight and moisture. Trees are batards of the first order. Anybody who thinks nature's "red in tooth and claw", and beak and beady eye, is beautiful has got far too much on Ignore. The divine Marquis used expressions such as "malevolent goddess" and "this ogress" to characterise Nature and said that virtue and education which leads to virtue are un-natural and that the atheist (and evolutionist), to avoid looking like a half-baked nitwit, should give free rein to the instincts Nature has planted in him. Such instincts being only criminal to a Christian.

So the joke begins with an idiocy from an atheist point of view. And continues in the same vein to the end and has one purpose only: namely to express aggression towards Christian beliefs which is why it has been saluted here by the usual suspects as might well be expected. It's another comforting variation of the Mom's apron.

As Mailer suggested--if somebody is flattering you keep hold of your wallet.
Francis
 
  3  
Thu 24 Feb, 2011 06:22 am
I have to acknowledge that you have a way with words that is particularly evocative to me.

However, it saddens me that you use this particular gift to twist everything other people say.

Like if you only read what you write...

Spendi wrote:
It generally means that they are uncomfortable when not steering the conversation and being the centre of attention


Were you talking about yourself, Spendi?

Francis
 
  2  
Thu 24 Feb, 2011 06:25 am
@spendius,
An example how a joke can be interpreted according to the joke teller:

This joke didn't receive the same appreciation when the teller was Ionus:

Atheist joke
spendius
 
  0  
Thu 24 Feb, 2011 06:47 am
@spendius,
The Henry Fielding essay referred to above is Chapter I of Book 8 of Tom Jones which can be read online.
0 Replies
 
spendius
 
  0  
Thu 24 Feb, 2011 06:59 am
@Francis,
I prefer to think that I try to untwist what others say if occasion arises.

I don't know how to engage in a debate without expressing my own opinions. Things that require no opinion are not subjects for debate.

Quote:
Were you talking about yourself, Spendi?


We were discussing people who continually point out that other posters are off topic or that they have some people on Ignore. Those are not habits of mine so perhaps you have misunderstood the exchange.

If you wish to comment on my habits then you might make a point about people who don't use Ignore or continually declare that others are off topic.

0 Replies
 
failures art
 
  2  
Thu 24 Feb, 2011 07:51 am
@Francis,
Iomus might be on more people's ignore list as well. Fewer people may have even seen his post.

A
R
T
spendius
 
  0  
Thu 24 Feb, 2011 08:14 am
@failures art,
How would that benefit them fa? Are there things they are scared of reading?
0 Replies
 
edgarblythe
 
  3  
Thu 24 Feb, 2011 01:09 pm
@failures art,
failures art wrote:

Iomus might be on more people's ignore list as well. Fewer people may have even seen his post.

A
R
T

Perzackly.
 

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