RE: Moving on.
October 14, 2010 at 7:27 pm
(This post was last modified: October 14, 2010 at 7:28 pm by TheDarkestOfAngels.)
Since I'm certain that I am one of the aforementioned arrogant and condescending atheists around here, I feel I should say something... or perhaps I shouldn't (though I've clearly already decided to).
My approach to debating often varies as much as my mood but I often find myself arguing rather aggressively. I understand that this isn't always conductive to a more lighthearted discussion among disagreeing but otherwise friendly individuals but I also don't feel that I need to restrain my arguementation style to appear friendly nor do I feel that I need to give someone's crazy ideas the same lassitude as the proven ones so I don't step on toes or hurt feelings. If I think someone's ideas are inane then I feel perfectly obligated toward pointing that fact out and defending my points.
Despite this, I don't feel animousity toward anyone I disagree with here - not one of them, unless they attack me personally, which hasn't really happened all but maybe once or twice in the time that I've been posting here. The reason I come here at all is because I like hanging out with like-minded people and the sometimes very heated discussions and arguements I can have here - even with the people I have some respect for because one of the things I thoroughly enjoy doing is challenging the ideas of others (especially the rather stupid ones) and having my own ideas challenged to the best of our ability.
In those discussions, it seems to be easy to get condescending and arrogant when you think you're right and the ideas of the opposition appear crazy enough. I don't apoligize for my attitude nor do I expect it from anyone but I suppose I see this more as a measure of verbally showing confidence in your own position in a discussion or arguement than the kind of negativity between a pair of trolls. I believe it's more nuanced than that, but I'm merely telling you my interpretation of what we may have both seen lately from the recent discussions.
This doesn't mean I believe that any jerkish attitude is kosher - I believe there are serious limits as to what is acceptable in a heated discussion, which is why I agree with Adrian's no insults rule, for example, when he first discussed it.
Paul, you've been here long before I got here and I have a good deal of respect for you and I'm sorry if I've been contributing to your hiatus so I posted this in the hopes that you can understand how I see things and why I do the things I do.
If anyone has any questions for me about this topic (because my thoughts above are somewhat disjoined and possibly incomplete) let me know.
My approach to debating often varies as much as my mood but I often find myself arguing rather aggressively. I understand that this isn't always conductive to a more lighthearted discussion among disagreeing but otherwise friendly individuals but I also don't feel that I need to restrain my arguementation style to appear friendly nor do I feel that I need to give someone's crazy ideas the same lassitude as the proven ones so I don't step on toes or hurt feelings. If I think someone's ideas are inane then I feel perfectly obligated toward pointing that fact out and defending my points.
Despite this, I don't feel animousity toward anyone I disagree with here - not one of them, unless they attack me personally, which hasn't really happened all but maybe once or twice in the time that I've been posting here. The reason I come here at all is because I like hanging out with like-minded people and the sometimes very heated discussions and arguements I can have here - even with the people I have some respect for because one of the things I thoroughly enjoy doing is challenging the ideas of others (especially the rather stupid ones) and having my own ideas challenged to the best of our ability.
In those discussions, it seems to be easy to get condescending and arrogant when you think you're right and the ideas of the opposition appear crazy enough. I don't apoligize for my attitude nor do I expect it from anyone but I suppose I see this more as a measure of verbally showing confidence in your own position in a discussion or arguement than the kind of negativity between a pair of trolls. I believe it's more nuanced than that, but I'm merely telling you my interpretation of what we may have both seen lately from the recent discussions.
This doesn't mean I believe that any jerkish attitude is kosher - I believe there are serious limits as to what is acceptable in a heated discussion, which is why I agree with Adrian's no insults rule, for example, when he first discussed it.
Paul, you've been here long before I got here and I have a good deal of respect for you and I'm sorry if I've been contributing to your hiatus so I posted this in the hopes that you can understand how I see things and why I do the things I do.
If anyone has any questions for me about this topic (because my thoughts above are somewhat disjoined and possibly incomplete) let me know.
If today you can take a thing like evolution and make it a crime to teach in the public schools, tomorrow you can make it a crime to teach it in the private schools and next year you can make it a crime to teach it to the hustings or in the church. At the next session you may ban books and the newspapers...
Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding. Always feeding and gloating for more. Today it is the public school teachers; tomorrow the private. The next day the preachers and the lecturers, the magazines, the books, the newspapers. After a while, Your Honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed until with flying banners and beating drums we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth centry when bigots lighted fagots to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind. ~Clarence Darrow, at the Scopes Monkey Trial, 1925
Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. ~Ronald Reagan
Ignorance and fanaticism are ever busy and need feeding. Always feeding and gloating for more. Today it is the public school teachers; tomorrow the private. The next day the preachers and the lecturers, the magazines, the books, the newspapers. After a while, Your Honor, it is the setting of man against man and creed against creed until with flying banners and beating drums we are marching backward to the glorious ages of the sixteenth centry when bigots lighted fagots to burn the men who dared to bring any intelligence and enlightenment and culture to the human mind. ~Clarence Darrow, at the Scopes Monkey Trial, 1925
Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first. ~Ronald Reagan
