(February 16, 2012 at 6:17 pm)padraic Wrote: Your basic position is that if a person acts from conviction then they are worthy of respect. THAT is a shallow and simplistic position,which you have tried (unsuccessfully) to justify by special pleading and equivocation.
No padraic, that is certainly not what I said and I have not changed a thing. My original words are pasted below to make that absolutely clear. You are making the mistake of paraphrasing Epi's twisted version of my words, not my words. All I am advocating is that we be fair to all people including fools and villains and retain our ability to admire their good qualities whilst at the same time deploring their bad ones. That is very clearly expressed, right from the start. Here are my actual words. To make it even easier for you to understand I have put his quality in bold and I have underlined the condemnation.
1. My comment on the oaf in the video: "Whilst I do not accept a single thing he was saying (or believing) I didn't see him as any more deluded or ignorant than the majority of Christians. The prime difference is that he was brave enough to stand up and shout about it. You've got to admire him for that but at the same time you've got to laugh in his face... .......no one in the video managed to challenge the idiot in an effective way. .."
You can not possibly read your words into my statement. It is perfectly clear that I am admiring his bravery and deploring everything else.
2. My comment on Hitler: Hitler was one of the most evil people the world has ever known but the technical, engineering and scientific advances in the Third Reich were incredible. Part of those advances were due to the vision and direction of Hitler. If it had been under the dictatorship of a 'nice' person the world would still be full of admiration for Hitler. The fact that he proved to be mad and evil does not stop me admiring the amazing, good things that he acheived.
You can not possibly read your words into my statement. It is perfectly clear that I am 'admiring the amazing, good things that he achieved'. The average human mind is quite capable of considering separately the achievement and the person. I am quite sure you will understand the distinction very clearly.
Rather than you keeping on trying to tell me what you think I think, a stupid exercise, why not read what I actually said? Why is it you and a couple of others feel compelled to twist words and then mock those twisted words? Does it make you feel clever? How about proving how clever you are and addressing the real issue.
