# A pitting for Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 19, 2021, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791 "2021-07-19T01:39:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/21 "2021-07-19T11:44:24Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > So true! As an atheist myself, I’m happy to tell you that my main hobby is not collecting stamps. What, not collecting stamps isn’t a hobby? How dare you! It’s as much of a hobby as atheism is a religion. Me too! Do you specialize in the types of stamps you don’t collect? I used to not collect commemorative stamps, but lately I’ve switched over to not collecting sports stamps. Must be the influence of the Olympics. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/22 "2021-07-19T11:48:00Z")
I mostly don’t collect stamps with presidents on them, but of course, not collecting any stamps is my real passion. I just read the thread in question – I don’t know what happened to **Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi** , but he has really become a flaming asshole and disingenuous poster. He was never on my flaming asshole radar before. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/23 "2021-07-19T11:48:01Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#): > > > [@RitterSport](#): > > > > So true! As an atheist myself, I’m happy to tell you that my main hobby is not collecting stamps. What, not collecting stamps isn’t a hobby? How dare you! It’s as much of a hobby as atheism is a religion. > > Me too! Do you specialize in the types of stamps you don’t collect? I used to not collect commemorative stamps, but lately I’ve switched over to not collecting sports stamps. Must be the influence of the Olympics. - I have the world’s largest collection of stamps I don’t collect. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 12:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/24 "2021-07-19T12:01:57Z")
As a philatelic agnostic, I don’t know whether or not I collect stamps. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/25 "2021-07-19T12:03:08Z")
> [@susan](#): > > As a philatelic agnostic, I don’t know whether or not I collect stamps. - That’s really pushing the envelope. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/26 "2021-07-19T12:03:38Z")
Typical mail response. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/27 "2021-07-19T12:11:37Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > For his performance in the Why don’t liberals and Democrats fully embrace atheism? thread, starting here: How dare you pit him simply for being a conservative! His view that gay sex is an abomination before the eyes of the lord os totally valid and we should love and cherish him for it. You are a mean mean bully for pitting him, a fate worse than death. Echo chamber, hive mind, liberal mods. There, I think I hit all the highlights. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/28 "2021-07-19T12:13:50Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > Imo, atheism is a religion in the since that its an absolutist belief system not supported by facts and bogged down in semantics as to what a deity is or isnt. No one knows and no one is ever likely to know if the universe has some sort of a creator. Now agnosticism on the other hand is closer to the truth as we understand it…’ **Agnostics** assert that it’s impossible for human beings to know anything about how the universe was created and whether or not divine beings exist.’. Lol, are you agnostic towards Quetzcoatl, or only towards Jesus? ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/29 "2021-07-19T12:51:05Z")
I’m a hard a-non-philatelist. I don’t merely have no belief that anyone is a non-philatelist, I have a positive belief everyone is a philatelist. ---
**Author:** ![DavidNRockies](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/davidnrockies/32/6279_2.png) [@DavidNRockies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidNRockies)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/30 "2021-07-19T12:53:40Z")
It’s worth repeating: Atheism is a religion like “OFF” is a channel on your television. Amen. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/31 "2021-07-19T13:17:06Z")
> [@madsircool](#): > > **Agnostics** assert that it’s impossible for human beings to know anything about how the universe was created and whether or not divine beings exist.’. First of all, good job, boys and girls, covering what atheism really is. I would like to point out that **madsircool** managed to get agnosticism wrong, too. Speaking as (maybe) an agnostic myself, I have certainly never asserted that “it’s impossible for human beings to know anything about how the universe was created”. In fact it’s surprising how much we already know **[about the origins of the universe](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chronology_of_the_universe)**, and we’re **[learning more all the time](https://www.desi.lbl.gov/)**. But I’m not really sure if I’m agnostic. By current definitions I suppose I’m also an atheist. Not only do I not have a belief in an omnipotent deity, like many of you I also do not have a magnificent stamp collection. And after watching _Jay Leno’s Garage_, I also do not have a large and growing collection of beautiful antique cars, including some very rare ones and even some models that are entirely non-existent. I don’t drive them much because they’re not insured. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/32 "2021-07-19T13:17:15Z")
Television “channel”? What are you talking about, grandpa? ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/33 "2021-07-19T13:19:18Z")
> [@RitterSport](#): > > Television “channel”? What are you talking about, grandpa I’ll put it in terms the new generation will understand. Atheism is a religion like the black screen on your phone is an app. ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 1:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/34 "2021-07-19T13:20:48Z")
> > > If you need one, we have one... ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 1:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/35 "2021-07-19T13:26:58Z")
That’s Positive Atheism ---
**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/36 "2021-07-19T13:27:33Z")
Haha! Nicely done. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/37 "2021-07-19T13:30:33Z")
> [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](#): > > > [@DocCathode](#): > > > > Lysenkoism > > Was the apogee of modern science in the day and the place. Of course it was mistaken. Nowadays our science is perfect. Yessir. Not a chance at all that we are wrong again. Nonesoever. Lysenkoism, aside from being rejected by scientists around the world, wasn’t accepted by geneticists and agronomists in the Soviet Union. It only flourished because it had prominent political backing. It was ludicrous from the get-go. Genetics was a flourishing field in the 1930s; Lysenko however denied the existence of genes. "Lysenko forced farmers to plant seeds very close together, for instance, since according to his “law of the life of species,” plants from the same “class” never compete with one another. He also forbade all use of fertilizers and pesticides… Outside the U.S.S.R., people sang a different tune: one of unwavering criticism. A British biologist, for instance, [lamented that Lysenko](https://books.google.com/books?id=Oo1EAQAAIAAJ&q=ignorant+of+the+elementary+principles+of+genetics+and+plant+physiology&dq=ignorant+of+the+elementary+principles+of+genetics+and+plant+physiology&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiJ8NP1xpbYAhXI44MKHcPZAnMQ6AEITTAH) was “completely ignorant of the elementary principles of genetics and plant physiology … To talk to Lysenko was like trying to explain differential calculus to a man who did not know his 12-times table.” > **[The Soviet Era's Deadliest Scientist Is Regaining Popularity in Russia](https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/trofim-lysenko-soviet-union-russia/548786/)** > > Trofim Lysenko’s spurious research prolonged famines that killed millions. So why is a fringe movement praising his legacy? As for the “Science wuz wrong before” ploy, it’s commonly used by dingbats and denialists to reject well-established science based on ideology and superstition. Not a good look. ---
**Author:** ![Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mundane_super_hero/32/6304_2.png) [@Mundane\_Super\_Hero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mundane_Super_Hero)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/38 "2021-07-19T13:48:31Z")
Here and I thought “Gotmituns” just meant their hands were cold. ( See? You really can learn things in The Pit… ) ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/39 "2021-07-19T13:56:05Z")
> [@Paul\_was\_in\_Saudi](#): > > Was the apogee of modern science in the day and the place. Of course it was mistaken. Nowadays our science is perfect. Yessir. Not a chance at all that we are wrong again. Nonesoever. I love this post because it shows very clearly the paradigm under which Paul thinks and therefore demonstrates exactly why he doesn’t trust science. It was never the apogee of science. Even in its time, it was clear that the results of Lysenkoism were not based on the scientific method, and other contemporary scientists called it out for that. The conclusions drawn were not based on independent study, the peer review process, or any scientific principals. So it was rejected. But Paul thinks in the mindset of a True Believer. Those Who Know (Scientist is just the Atheistic equivalent of Prophet, right?) tell us the Truth!, and we all believe the Truth!, until a new Scientist comes along with the New Textbook and we all follow him instead. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2021, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791/40 "2021-07-19T14:22:46Z")
> [@DavidNRockies](#): > > Atheism is a religion like “OFF” is a channel on your television. And like bald is a hair color. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-pitting-for-paul-was-in-saudi/946791.md?page=3)