So, no free sandwich? Then what good is your religion?
No, because a dictionary can only give you a short description of the word, not a summary of the idea and the details of its working. It takes at least the amount of text in a Wikipedia page to make the idea intelligible. Even the “Cliff’s Notes” summary takes up several pages.
The history of your participation in the SDMB bears out this claim admirably.
Schizophrenics are not well placed to be convincing spokesmen for complex theological viewpoints. If someone appears at my doorstep to try to tell me about Jesus, it would be, at very least, helpful if they were sane.
I missed the part where he mentioned he was diagnosed schizophrenic - i’m now debating on whether or not to continue any conversation with him. He’s the perfect mark for a cult.
FWIW, I’m not sure it makes any difference to me his diagnosis - he’s still responsible for the content of his posts - I’ll just now view them in a different light.
I’ll take a “Larry Niven” (“The Ethics of Madness”) approach to this.
If he’s sane enough to post on a general topic BBS like this one – in the BBQ Pit, no less – then he gets what’s coming to him.
If he’s so lost to sanity that he can’t post responsibly, then he ought to be in an institution, and protected from us…and from himself. His keepers are being irresponsible in allowing him to post here.
There really are people who are so messed up that they bear no responsibility for their own actions. I’m pretty sure that the SDMB isn’t the place for them. Our style of therapy is pretty damn rough…
My issue is that I can no longer take anything he posts at ‘face value’ - before I would simply assume he was being disingenuous or intentionally ‘maddening’ in his responses (take the whole “you’re harassing me with questions” bit) - now I realize that its simply not going to be possible to reason with him…
IOW, I now have to consider if the idiotic nature of some of his posts are a feature or a bug - and that makes conversing with him more challenging than I think I care to deal with, especially on a subject that can be as serious as this one.
I can certainly tone down the rhetoric and the insults - and I will endeavor to do so.
Tone 'em down? Man, turn it up! Lighter fluid and bellows. Who gots the liquid oxygen? This is the pit! Ordinary human decency, compassion, consideration, and well-reasoned responses, are, like, uh… (other than being human, decent, compassionate, considerate, and well-reasoned) … so way out of place here!
That schizophrenia reference really threw me. I know schizophrenics can function normally under medication and a lot of them have very high intelligence. I’m not trying to be flip but isn’t JW a perfect repository for a schizophrenic?
Judging from the tone of the last several posts, I think I should bow out and leave the lot of you to bandy words and while away time gossiping about me–you seem to enjoy it. I’ve had enough of you answering me back.
You are wrong on both points. First, I don’t babble, contrary to the opinion prevailing in this thread.
Second, I have probably raised more questions than you have, all these years (since late 1970).
I remember a bumper sticker that read “Question Authority.”
I commented to the driver of one car with that message, “That could also be, ‘Authorize Questions.’” He agreed with me.
Me too. I’d feel guilty about joining the pile-on, had the above been really clear, but I don’t think we can be expected to bone up on every tiny detail of someone’s posting history (even within thread, if it’s a long, rambling, bullshit-stuffed one) before interacting with them in this medium.
My family has a long history of alcoholism, lung cancer, and other results of various vices. My notions keep me from smoking, drinking, gambling, and treating drugs like toys. The issue of transfusion has never come up with me (in 64 years), and I’ve never made a serious effort even to know what my blood type is.
My ex-stepfather once said to me, “I hate Jehovah’s witnesses with a passion!” He was half-drunk at the time. See what kind of company you have?
