I think that you are assuming that everyone who disagrees with mswas is an atheist and that atheists are big bad meanies. Some of us who challenge mswas are Christians who are weary of Christian bullies. You call Constitutional law a “cheap shot”?
There is not just one important question in any given debate. There are many. Your statement is confusing.
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I taught debate early in my career and was a judge at the Nationals in the late 1980’s. The rules were the same for Christians and atheists.
It is admirable to defend a friend, but defend him for reasons based in the reality that is apparent to all who read here.
Are the following expressing the latest in Christian terminology: panty-twisting, whining, pissing and moaning? Are these the soft answers that turn away anger? Where is your argument now?
And furthermore… There’s no need to try to cover MSWAS’s @ss… He did something hilarious, we called him on it. I don’t think he’s a bad person – I may not even completely disagree with some things he says. I have done some weird stuff in my life, only a small portion of which will I ever post on the Straight Dope.
As for the OP, MSWAS was clearly delusional to some degree… Whether it’s that he was off his meds that week or that he thinks we really care how many times he has redifined the original Greek concept of ‘Christ’ or applied his very own personal Jesus, with Depeche Mode playing in the background - doesn’t matter.
If he doesn’t want to be taken seriously by people who really think about things, he is already in hog heaven – and we should just laugh when he says something and always ignore it.
If he actually does care and wants to actually be taken seriously, he will come around to presenting rational thoughts, otherwise the ideas in his head will stay there, and eventually die with him. I would not necessarily consider that a good thing.
Citizen Bob, your Timmy reference was priceless and neatly summed up Aeschines comments.
Certainly not.
Typical response from a fundamentalist that is incapable of understanding that it doesn’t take an atheist to disagree with you. I believe mswas is using a dishonest debating style which includes:
Not defining the variables in the discussion. Cite
Lacing his arguments with “a mix humor, fantasy…”
Aeschines, I understand your head has been confined to recesses of **mswas’s ** ass for sometime now, but after your separation surgery you might want to focus on what’s being discussed here rather than quibbling.
I don’t care if mswas wants to define Christ as the sun. I really don’t fucking care how he defines it, so long as he defines it*. The problem is that rather than say “Christ=sun” mswas says something similar to “Christ is like the sun, but not really”.
I’d prefer that he use a different term so as not to confuse people, but if mswas is interested in limiting his language choices to primarily Judeo-Christian terminology/concepts then that is his choice; a choice that will, undoubtably confuse those inexperienced in his rhetoric.
Mswas is a bully? I saw guy elaborating his theories, not a bully.
I don’t know what you’re talking about here.
I’m saying that, if you really wish to have a debate that seeks the truth, then you don’t straw-man your opponent; rather, you should even be willing to help him/her restate or elaborate upon his/her arguments so as to present his/her side in the strongest way possible.
They should be, of course.
Well, it’s quite clear that no one here was getting that reality in the first place, yet many felt competent to pounce.
Maybe he was/wasn’t, but the hamfisted “analysis” that people attempted in GD and the Pit certainly got us no closer to understanding his thought process.
I take that you mean by the above that, I can’t be taken seriously by thinkers here because there are no thinkers here. I disagree. I’m a thinker, I’m here, and I take him seriously.
We are not in the same place. I find his thoughts both rational and edifying. It’s a pity that you are not in a position to learn from them also.
The bully reference was to the religious leaders of Pontotoc County, championed by mswas, who excommunicated Ms. Herdahl from multiple churches and tacitly approved the persecution of her family.
Everyone here knows that I’m the furthest thing from a fundie. I’m a pantheist New Ager. Your comment is doubly stupid in that a real fundie would find mswas’s thoughts no more appealing than would an atheist.
No, that’s a whole page of a thread. What post are you complaining about?
This whole argument about mswas’s debating style is further complicated in that he didn’t write the OP, and I didn’t perceive him to be in particular the star of the thread, either. He was one person commenting among many.
In order first to decide whether humor or fantasy is appropriate in a debate, I think you first need a debate. Just because it’s called “Great Debates” doesn’t mean that everything in there is a real debate. What mswas was doing is what I’d call “sharing.” Sure, when people attacked his position in a demeaning fashion, he blasted back (and effectively, too), but I wouldn’t call the exchanges “debating.”
Hey, at least I’m social in my ass-spelunking, whereas you just have yours up yours in an autoerotic fashion.
No need for surgery: We used plenty of lube. As for the “discussion,” for my part it’s like trying to convince disbelieving kindergarteners that there’s a Cyrillic alphabet when they don’t even know their ABC’s yet. You simply don’t have the mental tools to do the work.
Right. And you want to measure the position and momentum of a subatomic particle simultaneously. Tough shit.
The high priest (position currently vacant) is the kohen gadol. Kohanim are priests. Nimoy, who’s Jewish himself, and was raised Orthodox, got the hand signal from the kohanim blessing of the congregation.
What you are describing about MSWAS is called “Sophistry” by my definition - [Look it up in wikipedia]. You seem to be also leaning toward the Sophist just like MSWAS and your namesake: http://www.bartleby.com/65/ae/Aeschine.html . Then there never has been any honest conversation and there can never be.
Does the Timarchus cite click, now?
Your comments on this particular threat have always been vapid… so what’s your point? I don’t remember seeing vapid remarks before.
shakes head The thickness continues to purvail.
Hmm, sounds like familiarity with pop-culture and possibly SouthPark… I’m surprized you don’t understand the “Timmy!, Timmey! dfhsgfghwgrfhefTTTtimmmmeeee!!!” Reference, Timarchus. Well Here’s anothe one, TIMMEEEYYY!
I haven’t seen you discuss anything - Just make wild claims about other peoples’ intentions, on which you are clarly noty an expert-- and neither am I really – unless you ARE secretly MSWAS and you don’t want us to know… and endless defense of MSWAS Sophistry.
[Related Monty Python Quote 
Everyone here knows that I’m the furthest thing from a fundie. I’m a pantheist New Ager. Your comment is doubly stupid in that a real fundie would find mswas’s thoughts no more appealing than would an atheist.