>Tim,
>
>How many fundamentalists have you known and conversed with?
Literaly hundreds. I was raised in a Baptist/Evangelical household.
(Although the Northwest Baptists are an entierly different breed than their
Southern counterparts. For example, some of our Baptists provided sanctuary
for Central American refugies in the basements of their churches during the
Reagan/Contra 80s.)
>How many have you "converted" from their belief system?
Several. Closed minds open up quite nicely if you have the patience to
wedge them open bit-by-bit over time. It is not a quick process, however.
>Your analogy of a philosophical circle jerk was an excellent one, because
>our seed certainly had no chance of growing in the barren womb of Johnny's
>closed mind.
"And he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, "A farmer went out to
sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and
birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky soil. It sprang up quickly,
because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were
scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among
thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good
soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thiry times what was
sown.
He who has ears, let him hear.""
(Quite an interesting understanding of memetics, no?)
But if you don't have the patience to plant /any/ seeds...
-Prof. Tim