Philosophy

[Tiberius]

You know, you call others "fucking ridiculous" but you have absolutely no intellectual curiosity at all. All atheists seem to know how to do is berate what they won't take the time to even think about.

He wrote a contradictory statement. It didn't take me much thinking (and I did think about it) to realise it was contradictory. I simply pointed it out.

Lots of philosophers through the ages have doubted that what we consider "reality" is truly all there is. Parmenides, Zeno, Plato, Aristotle, Berkeley to name a few. But I guess with a wave of your what, 20-year-old hand, you would dismiss them as "fucking ridiculous" as well.

Not at all, but dagda wasn't saying that. He said that reality was a prison but also an illusion. I fail to see how one can argue both at the same time. What he really needs to define is reality, because I take reality as everything that exists (and that includes multiple-universes if they do exist). In my mind, reality is a constant. It's like the "fog of war" in PC strategy games. You only know a certain amount at the start, but as the begin exploring, more and more is revealed. However just because the fog was covering it doesn't mean it isn't already there. Gravity existed before we discovered it for example.

Let me tell you something I know that you don't seem to know:
Everything you know--has been taught to you. You think you're advanced, intelligent, wise, oh, and what's the other word...educated. But you don't espouse any original ideas.

I suggest you read my blog, because I espouse original ideas quite frequently on there. I think you are leading yourself down a trap by claiming I don't espouse original ideas, because a simple review of my posts on this forum would reveal a number of them. On the other hand, what is wrong with espousing non-original ideas if I have thought about them and I agree with them. There are no rules that say everything I utter must be original (in fact most of the time it helps to have a point that is backed up by other people's thinking).

A man with an original idea, wrong or right, is worth a thousand know-it-all's. A person says they're gnostic. I'm intrigued, but you seem to be threatened to the point of hostility. Why is that?

I agree, original ideas are great whether they are right or wrong, and as I said above, I've thought up several. I'm intrigued too, but I'm not threatened. So far dagda has done nothing to cause me to push my panic button, I simply disagree with what he says as to my mind it is a contradiction.

Oh, and here's a clue I learned from some of my...shall we say, experience...if you want a successful forum, you don't talk to your new members like that.

Dagda isn't a new member, and it shouldn't matter anyway. If a new member comes along (as you have) and makes up some ridiculous circular argument, I have the right to call them on it. You just don't like people who have a problem with your way of thinking, that's fine, this is what debate and discussion is all about.

You want this forum to run with the big dogs, you should grow up, act like a manager, and enforce your own rules. You're supposed to be an example for the rest of us in here to follow.

Coming from the guy who broke several rules with this post, I find the above very hypocritical. But you are right, I should enforce my own rules, which is why I support Kyu's decision to issue you with a warning over the aforementioned post. I tried to count how many times you directly attacked a member in that post, but there were too many instances. It really was a very beautiful rant.

You want ten of your friends to be in here posting once a week? Fine, piss off everyone who comes in to try out the forum. Believe me. If you want to be successful, you better find a way to attract every religious nut, like me and the gnostic, that you can. You'll always have pleanty of atheists to challenge them.

This is a forum for atheists. We don't need religious nuts (and I'm glad you finally admit to being one) to have nice discussions. Atheism covers one disbelief, it doesn't have a dogma so many atheists disagree with each other over other things. This is why we aren't posting pictures of Darwin everywhere. We actually want a good discussion!

But what do I know. You probably think I'm fucking ridiculous, too.

That all depends on your views. If you have beliefs that are fucking ridiculous, I will call them fucking ridiculous.