I really like this guy. He is always so friendly, he is rational in a way that I see as being truly rational, he’s just really got his shit together on that level. All of his posts are very interesting even though they go over my head a lot.
And this comment:
It’s just so filled with awe and wonder that I cannot help but smile reading it. It’s so hopeful and optimistic. I daresay even ‘spiritual’ in the sense that I understand the word. Hopefully he won’t be offended that I called him spiritual.
I really can find nothing to disagree with it. This is clearly a person who is engaged with the world. I find him very inspiring and found the Straight Dope to be less when he was gone.
I don’t usually write fanwanks of other members of this board, but I really like this guy a lot.
SentientMeat is a supergenius, and is the board’s absolutely best representative for atheism and physicalism (his special brand of materialism). When he debates, he does so honestly. Never any weasling or hedging. He takes the time and bother to understand your side. He wants to understand what you’re saying, so that he can understand your side as well as he understands his own. Here is just one example. Even though he and I disagreed, he took the time to put together my own argument, and present it better than I could.
He likes Daniel Dennett’s famous saying, “There is nothing I like less than bad arguments for a view that I hold dear.” He understands not only science, but also the philosophy of science — in other words, he knows the underpinnings of what he believes. It is a great honor that I claim to be his soulmate, and that he accepts my claim, despite the philosophical and theological chasms that divide us.
It is my dream to see a thread in which both he and Indistinguishable — the only poster who I believe is the equal of Sentient — debate opposite sides of an issue. SentientMeat is the top of the top tier. It is unfortunate that his life takes him in and out of the community. He is an amazing man. When I asked him whether he would mind if I asked God’s blessings upon him, he responded with good humor and a lovely temperament. He accepts me for who I am, and pretends to be no one other than who he is.
I love SentientMeat. He is both my friend and my mentor. He will not mind when I say, “My great friend, may God go with you always.”
It should be my pleasure to add my comments to this, but mswas and Lib have said it all. I don’t agree with his worldview or his philosophy, but he’s an amazing person, and our lives are the richer for his presence.
I’d just like to add to the praise. I’m pretty much a lurker, but reading threads he’s a part of-even older ones-are always an enlightening treat. Debate has become much more enriching to me by trying to live by his example of making an honest attempt at understanding and respecting the opposition.
I know that he would not mind my responding to this on his behalf during his absence.
While it is indeed true that Sentient has the ability to wax poetic (and he has posted various versions of this “we’re made of stars” thing), he is an atheist through and through. He believes that *everything *is physical — even things like ideas, or ambitions, or morality. It is no secret that he has admitted to having dallied with faith for a bit, but likened it to a drug experience.
He is, in fact, an atheist in the classical sense. It’s just that a lot of other people aren’t. They are anti-theists. Or agnostics. Or just bellicose babblers who aren’t really atheists, but play one on TV. It would be a dishonor and a disservice to him to try to paint him as a romantic idealist who believes in some form of God that is somehow unconventional. That’s one of the things I love about him. It’s not just that he is honest — he is! But it’s that he knows what he is and what others aren’t.
Sentient is like the heterosexual man who is comfortable enough in his own sexuality to pal around with gay guys and not give a shit what other people think. Same same for his atheism. It is the authentic, real sort of atheism that some people claim to hold as a philosophy, but don’t even know the history or context of their own alleged beliefs. That’s why Sentient can pal around with me, unconcerned about my theism rubbing off on him. He’s just that honest and that brilliant.
He would not like for me to say too much, but I think it is public knowledge that he will be in the United States soon to give a lecture. He invited me to be his special guest, and I curse my life that I was unable to meet up with him. Hopefully, however, we will be able to do something together in the not too distant future that we both love. His posts are truly remarkable, each one a gem of knowledge and wisdom. His lectures are even better. I don’t mean to be cryptic, but he has asked for some protection of his anonymity, and I certainly will oblige him. There is nothing I would love more than to camp with him in the Appalachian mountains, among the non-enrolled Cherokee people, discussing philosophy, science, and God. It is so odd how he inspires me. But he does. He is a beautiful man. An exceptional man. But he would complain (and has complained a bit) about being put on “a pedestal”. And you see, that only serves to make him even greater.
