whoever the “rest of us” in your first post are.
Because then Dribble would actually be forced to explain why his act of treating all conservatives as evil racists isn’t bigotry and/or contorting himself into a strange enough pretzel that he can claim that calling someone an evil racist doesn’t evince “strong dislike or antipathy.”
In other words, if he actually elaborated on his obfuscation, he’d look more absurd than he already does. So he simply says “liar!” while he continues to serve as an object lesson proving my points. Much like his claims that I’m a “liar” and have used only my own post and a strawman at that in order to distort Der’s support of the Iranian theocracy and opposition to the Iranian people’s own wishes… while I link to the entire thread allowing everybody to see for themselves whether or not Der said exactly what I’m claiming he did.
Much like he claims that Der doesn’t use “invective” in the same breath as admitting that Der calls people hateful, evil, etc…
I’m beginning to think that either he simply doesn’t understand the English language at all well, or he’s a pathological liar.
Some people are liars. Dribble is. And I can and have proved it by simply quoting text and rather basic denotations. On the flipside, making things up and preemptively calling someone a “liar” with no elaboration or substantial at all is the mark of a intellectual coward.
Which I’d expect, seeing as how he’s not only an admitted bigot, he’s not even decent enough to be ashamed of his bigotry.
Oh, and:
Not to get in the way of your pathological lying, but yeah. And anybody else can click on it, and see that the entire thread is linked to, and they can scroll up and down freely. Unlike if I’d actually linked to a single post. Like this.. It’s the difference between #post10374592 which simply shows the entire thread but centers on a post, and postcount=96 which shows only one post. I showed the entire thread. You lied and claimed I did not. Idiot.
Ah. Well, I meant the rest of the world.
Your comments here all lead me to believe that you either don’t understand the meaning of the word “evil,” or you are just flinging it around to be inflammatory.
Y’know, childishly twisting your opponent’s name into an insult every. single. time. you reference it makes you look like an immature tool, undermines the quality of your posts and does nothing to support your arguments. FYI.
So this plant sets traps, then (presumably) springs them, and (again presumably) devours it’s prey, all without moving? How odd. For that matter, how does an acorn become an oak without moving?
If he can read babies’ minds, why was his performance so poor? If I claimed to be able to make ten free throws in a row blindfolded, (a feat, by the way, which is quite doable,) and only manged one, why would further testing be necessary?
He made an extraordinary claim. (The ability to read minds.) Extraordinary proof was required, but, alas, not forthcoming. Next play.
[QUOTE=FinnAgain;10458824
Not to get in the way of your pathological lying, but yeah. And anybody else can click on it, and see that the entire thread is linked to, and they can scroll up and down freely. Unlike if I’d actually linked to a single post. Like [this.]
(http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=10375801&postcount=96). It’s the difference between #post10374592 which simply shows the entire thread but centers on a post, and postcount=96 which shows only one post. I showed the entire thread. You lied and claimed I did not. Idiot.
[/QUOTE]
Different strokes, then. I still consider that a link to a post. A link to thread would be likethis, not jumping to a specific post. But whatever.
Maybe I’m just being, oh, Christian about the whole thing?
I try not to have any room in my heart for hate for anyone. Don’t always succeed, but for people as removed from me personally as American conservatives, it’s easy to recognise the evil without feeling anything as personal as hate. Like, I don’t hate Nazis or the Inquisition, either (too remote), but certainly recognise the evil.
QED: sorry, I don’t view that as childish (and it’s a practice that’s been in place and used by adults since ancient Rome, at least, to express contempt, mockery and scorn.) And I never assumed it would support my argument, but that my argument’s support would show why I was consistently using that insult.
How do you know for sure? It’s possible – and statistically likely – that at least one person victimized by Randi’s scam-based contest has committed suicide due to humiliation and failure. Remember, “psychic science” is faith-based (and yes, it’s a dangerous faith, if you don’t understand the fundamentals) and losing faith in one’s “psychic” ability can be a tremendous, potentially mortal blow. Now, I don’t know for sure if such a thing has ever happened, nor to I care enough to examine the records and determine if it’s actually happened or not, but I will say this:
There is only one mortal sin – the destruction of another human soul. I’m not saying that all suicides go to hell & get recycled, but some likely do by choice. (And by “hell” I don’t mean eternal fire & brimstone – that’s a scare tactic invented by the Catholic Church – I’m talking about extinction of your awareness, you sink to the bowels of the earth and get recycled. It’s actually quite painless, I think.) I’m familiar enough with humiliation & depression to know that there were times it got so bad, I’ll actually pray to God/ The Universe/ Great Pink Unicorn whatever to destroy my awareness, make my soul become extinct, because the pain is so great that I want to die and never live again, ever. (For the record, I don’t feel that way anymore, and I’m confident I never will.) Therefore…if Randi’s scam-based contest triggered humiliation so great in a person that they chose suicide & soul extinction, then James Randi himself is in extremely dire straits. Potentially, his soul is DAMNED.
Praying to God / Universe / Pink Unicorn won’t help James Randi, either. He requires someone else to pray for his soul, and it must be a person who knows him personally and loves him. And that part is out of my hands, and out of the hands of Randifans as well. I do sense that Randi’s concerned about his soul (old men, even skeptics, commonly think of such things) but I doubt he’s aware just how dire the situation might be!
(Of course, this scenario’s only possible if human souls really exist…but if they don’t, we’re all kinda fucked anyways, right?)
In what way? I don’t require something to live on after I die in order to render my life meaningful in the present. If anything, it makes me enjoy what small amount of life I’m allotted even more, knowing that once I’m gone there isn’t any more of it. Get it while you can, right?
I will never understand this.
If there are no souls (and there aren’t), then life is the whole enchilada. There’s no handwaving and saying that it’s no big deal if your life sucks because your reward is in heaven or anything of the sort. The claim that souls exist allows people to be complacent about human suffering because it doesn’t really matter in the long run.
To elaborate, as early as what, 70 BCE (?) , Bibulus had his very name erased in many public discussions as the satirists of the age took to referring to the government as “the consulship of Julius and Caesar.” Homer (who I’d hope you’d agree wasn’t an immature tool) has Teucer refer to Hector as “mad dog” to demonstrate Teucer’s hatred of Hector, and not any immaturity on his part. The man we all know as “Caligula” was actually named Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, and the word “Caligula” was a pejorative which referred to his use of a miniature Roman soldier’s uniform when he was a child. Nobody even knows him as Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, and I’d hope you’d agree that people aren’t being immature for calling him Caligula (then or now). Philonides was referred to as “drinking cup” rather than Philonides. Etc…
Unless I miss my guess Shakespeare used the same rhetorical flourish more than once, although specific examples escape my mind at the present. I can recall that, aside form having characters refer to each other in such a manner, he went as far as to give characters themselves absurd appellations to show their foolishness (e.g. Bottom). Kings and rulers, for millenia, have been given pejorative appellations like calling Ivan IV Vasilyevich, “Ivan the Terrible”. Again, do you know anybody who ever refers to him as Ivan IV Vasilyevich?
It’s a stylistic convention, and an ancient one at that.
While I’m happy to admit that I’ve been too free with using it, to claim that it’s somehow immature is just silly.
Is there any reason why the souls of the dead should sink into the bowels of the Earth? Are souls subject to gravity, or is the Earth a psychic entity?
No no, only shitty souls do that.
I’ve heard a lot of crap over the years about psychic phenomena not being amendable to testing, but this is by far the silliest. FTR I believe psychic phenomena are possible, but at this time I have to side with the lack of evidence being a decent indication that, if it does exist, it is not controllable. (But really I’m just going to say it doesn’t exist. Existence is not my default position for anything.)
Not as far as I can see, but I’m a little worried about wading into this one. It’s hard enough to convince either the anti-capitalism folks or the faith-based libertarians what the “free” in “free market” means, nevermind this angels on pins stuff about the soul.
The people being tested agree to this ahead of time, and have a hand in the making of the test. Randi does not spring surprise tests on people. Randi also has the claimant pass an initial test to verify that things are working today or whatever, independent of the actual test.
This would of course be because no one has been able to prove they have the abilities they claim to have.
The test is part of a contract, and the contract says what happens in the event the test is passed. The money is in the hands of an escrow agent, which can be checked by anyone. James Randi has no say in what happens to the money once the test starts.
Wrong. Randi and the claimant design the tests, starting with nailing down what the claimant can and can’t do.
Randi or a representative signs it too.
Calling it a scam won’t make it so. Just because you’re afraid that a well run and scientific test might expose your claims for the bullpatties they are doesn’t mean that Randi is scamming anyone. People are free to take the challenge as they see fit, and do not have to pay to do so.
Once again, Randi’s money is in an escrow account, and he has no control over it once the test begins. If you’re going to throw around accusations of fraud you might want to have a little bit of evidence on your side. You have none.
What victim? The only victims here are the people who fall for the psychic scams. Are you honestly going to call a person who gets called on their shit in a scientific test a victim?
So it’s ‘possible’ that someone committed suicide because they were shown that they don’t have some psychic power they think they have? Yeah, I’m having a hard time feeling all that bad. In fact, why don’t you take that ‘possible suicide’ and weigh it against this. Those are victims, not deluded psychics being shown reality. Have a read, see how many people are really harmed by psychics and magic.
So you want to be able to claim something, but you don’t want to have to do the work or even care if it’s right? Got it.
I’ll be sure and let him know. He could probably use a good laugh.
Why would we be fucked? Without the existence of soul we would be… well exactly the way we are right now. Funny that.
And this is why no one is listening to you. This here is some serious weapons grade crazy. This is crazy with malice aforethought. I mean, it’s got it all: the afterlife, Catholic Church conspiracies, scams, the bowels of the earth, big capital letters, and not single whiff of evidence. This is a forum dedicated to the fighting of ignorance, and with people like you we always know we’ll be needed.
Well, my version of Soul Theory is pure conjecture (and yes, I was grandstanding a bit…) but the way I think of it is that human souls are interconnected with other human souls in a manner similar to how living, flesh-based humans are socially interconnected with other living humans. Under normal circumstances, these “soul-connections” persist after death; but if those connections break, gravity takes over and your soul gets recycled. (BTW, can anyone recommend a book on social interconnection? That one’s been a huge mystery to me for a very long time, and I’ve searched high & low for a science-based manual on social connections but have yet to find one…)
Fair enough – but keep in mind, everyone’s time on this planet will end, eventually. It’s 100% guaranteed. I suspect you are too young to worry about death right now, but mark my words, there will come a day (hopefully many decades from now) when you will have no choice but to face your own mortality. Are you ready to face that day?
Well, aren’t you Mister Cheery?
An answer which admirably fails to address the question of why souls should be subject to gravity. :dubious: