In a message dated 2/12/99 2:50:48 PM Central Standard Time, proftim@speakeasy.org writes:
<< Jake wrote:
>Before I ran into you on this list, I had entertained the idea that you
were
>smarter than this. But you're just flat-ass wrong about these things.
Maybe
>anticipation of an appearance on Oprah, quite a faith monger herself, has
>weakened your rational immune system to these ideas. BTW, congratulations!
>Even if you aren't the smartest cookie, you are a celebrity, and probably
>pretty smart as celebrities go. I don't know if I would sacrifice IQ
points
>for celebrity, but it would be tempting.
Is it just my imagination, or do many of the self-proclamed rationalists on this list show a distinct lack of interpersonal skills? Wouldn't it seem rational to work on those if your goal in writing is communication?
-Prof. Tim
>>
If I say that somebody is wrong, does that show a "distinct lack of interpersonal skills"? Be realistic. This isn't a dinner party. Though it may make some feel more comfortable to imagine me a drooling, rude, nerdy yokel, I assure you that IRL, I am perfectly competant to holding my own and acting sophisticated in social situations.
I am here for intelligent discussion. Whenever these discussions about faith pop up, Brodie keeps dropping in, making these vague comments, asking mystical questions, and the disappears without clarification, like he thinks he is some enlightened bodhisatva coming down from the mountain speaking in parables. I don't buy acts like that. They impress me as being highly pretentious, and unltimately nonsensical.
After a few rounds of it, I don't have any compunctions about being a little strident. Brodie said I was "arrogant", for some comments that I made about faith that he considered un-PC. God forbid that I might actually imagine myself to be right about something. Since then, I have been trying not to disappoint him. This doesn't have to be an ego thing, but if he keeps insisting on this mystical bodhisatva routine of his, I will continue in my "arrogance".
Any time he wants to actually discuss faith in a conceptual/cultural fashion, I am more than ready and capable to cut the crap. Assuming that I am still around to do so.
-Jake