Possible but IMO unlikely. Meatros said “I found out through the grape vine that Badchad was taking credit for my deconversion so I wanted to set the record straight.” That doesn’t sound to me like he heard from badchad, though I may be wrong.
Right, because how could Meatros possibly know? It’s only his own life. How desperate for credit do you have to be? And how obnoxious is this: “I didn’t cross the street because of you.” “I think you did.” “Well, I didn’t.” “Yes you did.” :rolleyes:
Wax is not the only thing they lack.
Looks like I was wrong about that, in which case the claim for credit in his return is just… bizarre.
I didn’t contact Meatros but he obviously came back cause of what I said. It might not be the best business practice for the SDMB, but it sure beats paying someone $500 to leave.
It’s more of the variety of. I saw you on the other side of the street, I was calling for you, and now you are here. Sure it could be entirely coincidental. I could be wrong, I just don’t think so.
Incidentally Jodi, what do you think about Meatros reasons for leaving the faith, as cited in his second link. Are they irrational? Do you see any obvious strengths or weaknesses?
No, he is right, by being a ‘jerk’, BC indirectly brought a poster out of retirement to refute him. That is $14.95 paid to the SDMB due to BC.
Give him credit where credit is due.
Jim
You forgot:
“I crossed the street because I felt like it.”
“Cite.”
“What?”
“Exactly, besides, I don’t think you actually crossed the road.”
“Then why am I standing here?”
“Cite.”
“I’m right here.”
“Because I made you.”
(bows to assumed, hypothetical and adoring crowd)
No. I am pointing out that talking about someone’s stupidity is not the same thing as calling them “Fool.” Even saying that someone is a fool is different than calling them “Fool.” (And even that allows for interpretation, which I am not sure should be permitted based on your previous exercises of demanding literal readings.) Specifically, the statement that Jesus made was that one would be in trouble for calling another person Rhaka, and the author of Matthew’s gospel did not even translate it out of the Aramaic, meaning–following your insistence on the literal acceptance of scripture–that the bad things come into play if one names his brother “Fool” (not a fool), or, more probably, based on your way of reading scripture, only if one names one’s brother Rhaka. Given that Monty has not ever named you Rhaka, you lie when you claim that he has disobeyed Jesus.
I’ve been trying to stay away, mostly becuae there are now three threads in the pit directly on indirectly relating to badchad, and I don’t know if the hamsters can take much more. I have a question to badchad, though:
Why are you here? Why do you pay to post at the SDMB?
For several reasons, this strikes me as the most pathetic thing I’ve read in a long, long time. I’m reminded of the departed Scott Plaid, but he, unlike Misfired Sperm (TM Liberal), had many interests. The similarities I see are the baseless declarations of victory and the apparent validation derived therefrom.
I’m not sure it does beat paying someone to leave. Mischaracterizing someone’s motivations so that they feel provoked to come back and prove you a liar doesn’t strike me as a great way to reattract members.
Once an explanation has been given showing that you are incorrect, to imply that Meatros is being dishonest in that explanation is incredibly presumptuous and insulting – IOW, par for the course for you. And spare us the oily “I’m inclined to take you at your word” when the whole point of your post was that you are not taking him at his word. When you choose to be an asshole, own it.
I think his reasons for leaving the faith are his business and I wouldn’t dream of sitting in judgment of them. He certainly hasn’t asked for my opinion. What do you think about your errorneous insistence that “rhaka” and “metos” are synonyms? When can we expect to see your concession that you are wrong about them being synonyms in Greek, and weaselly to insist that they be translated to English to try to make them synonymous?
A lot of people are in disagreement as to whether there is a god or not.
A lot of people are in agreement that badchad is a cunt.
Thank you, badchad, for helping unite people.
Now please do us a further favor, and fucko off.
Oh my god! 
Well, since we’re sharing…
My best subjunctive interrogative.
My best presentation of tabular data.
“And for our pony’s next trick…”
“Mommy, the pony just did the same trick again. This show sucks.”
“Hush, child.”
A lovely little proof! But you forgot to pay for webhosting, and now I can’t acess it anymore. I don’t suppose you kept a backup copy?
You forgot your best summation of the nature of Misfired Sperm . Don’t be so modest.
This will be the third time I’ve attempted to post here - so forgive me if my responses are short.
I would give you credit for my deconversion if I thought you deserved it. To be quite honest though, I don’t really think our interactions were terribly influencial on me. That’s probably because although I thought I was quite open minded about my religious tendencies, I really wasn’t.
To put it simply, the Christian you targeted in our discussion simply wasn’t the Christian I was and further, you didn’t seem to want to engage the Christian I, in fact, was, so I pretty much shrugged a lot of what you had to say off.
As for anyone else putting the screws to my faith - people putting screws to my faith only reinforced it (that sounds odd, but what I mean is that they made me defensive, but not critical) and as a matter of fact, quite a lot of people were grilling me about my faith at the time. For instance, I would consider the people at the baptist board as being prime grillers. I went back and forth with them for months and believe it or not, but even though they were stark fundies I could relate with them better (and therefore I was more receptive to them).
Also, I’m not entirely sure we talked prior to my atheism. I deconverted in Sept 03 and didn’t “come out” until after my wedding in November (I did tell my wife prior though) and I seem to recall coming out in January, but I could be wrong. I do recall being secretly an atheist while reading some of your posts though - I’m just not sure if I remember reading all of your posts as an atheist.
Perhaps our definitions are different. At the time I wasn’t putting in all that many hours at the Dope. I was primarily engaged at baptist board, the vampire forums, Christian forums, darwintalk, and another forum that I can’t recall anymore.
I remember a few engagements with you.
As for faith - I still don’t think it’s a bad thing. Well, at least not definitively. I don’t think it’s quite as useful or helpful as I once did. Granted I can definitely see the appeal when people die. I think in that sort of situation faith can be an emotional solace and can be useful and good in that kind of context.
Fair enough.
I have no reason to lie to you. As I said, the astrology link shows what shook my faith. Without that shaking, I would probably still be a theist today. The important point was not the information, it was the fact that it was the first time in my life I considered the proposition that I could be totally and dreadfully wrong (not just wrong in my* interpretation*).
The second link occurred after I had spent quite an intensive period reading philosophy and Christian history. I found, at the time, those were the stones that took the giant down.
I certainly didn’t plagarize from you if that’s what you are implying and I don’t recall discussions of that sort with you. Maybe we had them, but those objections came mainly from the readings I had done in those few weeks.
Heh, yes, I’d chalk that up to you - but I’d have to give credit to my friend who still posts here. He’s occasionally told me about some interesting discussions on the dope that made me really curious - but I don’t know, it wasn’t until I realized that not only do some people still remember me, but some people are remembering me incorrectly. 
This devolving thread reminds me of this nugget of wisdom:
Would you rather be right, or be happy?
Although this quote is from a marital relationships article, it still holds true for friends, cow-orkers and even fellow Dopers:
Bolding mine.
On one side, I see a poster who wants to be right, no matter what it takes, and is sacrificing (or has already sacrificed) his happiness to be “right”. On the other side, I see the rest of SD posters realizing that it is better to be “happy” rather than “right” at all costs. They also realize that there is greater value in happiness rather than being “right” at all costs, or at least agreeing to disagree.
I see one very unhappy poster, and I encourage the rest of you to avoid his poison.
Heh, as I said, I don’t think he was instrumental or much of an influence in my deconversion. I won’t rule out any influence what-so-ever because I’m sure he and other atheists did have some sort of subconscious influence or marginal influence or whatever (about as effective as George Carlin, if that helps as a reference point) - but I certainly can’t be used as an example of a ‘win’ for Badchad, since his over all style ultimately made me blind to his criticisms. I remember ignoring them and glancing over them and thinking, ‘he just doesn’t get it’.
Now, as for influencing my return…Yes, he can say he influenced that. 
This is more along the line of my thinking…
Apparently some people don’t agree with that.