mattbrowne's avatar
  • Last visit: November 19th, 2009
  • Member since: March 24th, 2009
  • Questions asked: 182
  • Responses written: 3934
mattbrowne
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M.S. degree from the University of Kansas, IT professional and part-time science fiction writer, 46 years old, married, two children

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3 weeks ago
gussnarp's avatar gussnarp said :

Man, I couldn’t find the darn reply button on your comment until I just got a new comment in. So I just picked up the Miller book at the library and I’ll be slowly picking my way through it too.

1 month ago
Fyrius's avatar Fyrius said :

I would very much like everyone to stop using the words “spiritual” and “spirituality”, too. They depend on the existence of something that can be called one’s “spirit”. It would be nice if at least people would stop presupposing that the spirit is indisputably there.

And for the time being, I do think I will continue delivering sneers, ridicule and polemic wherever sneers, ridicule and polemic are so well-deserved.
I’m done reining in my pen. I will not be politically correct if I think the truth lies elsewhere.

Curiously, if you want to know, I have been “beyond” sneering and ridicule and polemic for a long time. At that time I believed all sane adults are reasonable and that any belief held by anyone must have good arguments going for it, or they wouldn’t believe it.
I grew out of that. I learned about hypocrites, about the intellectually dishonest, about deliberate liars who even spread beliefs they know to be false (e.g. Intelligent Design). I learned how much more likely exciting sensationalist fallacies are to be believed than calm, reasonable arguments (e.g. far-fetched conspiracy theories). I learned how stubborn people can be about what they think they know (e.g. old wives’ tales). I learned about beliefs that are conclusively proved wrong beyond any doubt, but that still have whole herds of loyal followers (e.g. Intelligent Design, again) and can even form tax-exempt government-approved institutions (e.g. homoeopathy). I learned that there are people who are willing to defend a belief to their last breath whether it’s true or not (e.g. any religion). I learned that there exist people who truly are not reasonable.

Rest assured, though, I do think I will eventually learn to live with the fact that people honestly believe things that I consider a slap in the face of human intellect. Contrary to what impressions I may make, I am very interested in eventually finding back my inner peace.
But before that can happen, I think I need to pass through a polemic phase. I’ll need to voice and express my frustration and disappointment at humanity’s rejection of reason and distortions of logic before I can get used to such things. After that, I hope I’ll find the serenity to focus my efforts on more constructive ways to promote atheism, scepticism and scientific reason.
I’m still young. Adolescents are often vigorous like this.

Yours rantingly,

Fyrius

1 month ago
Fyrius's avatar Fyrius said :

Wotcher.

For my purposes, it doesn’t matter a lot.
I for one oppose Deism (it still relies on a colossal and completely unnecessary assumption, and anything that is either factually true or false is a scientific issue) and all three levels of Christianity alike. I also oppose all the non-Christian religions as well as anything else that relies on the supernatural for no insurmountably good reason, as well as any non-supernatural belief that people cling to against better knowledge (e.g. homeopathy or Pluto being a planet).

I also think your usage of the term “enlightened” is a bit on the arbitrarily judgemental side; to me, this is not all that much more “enlightened” than the other varieties. It’s still shrouded in the darkness of intellectual captivity to ancient mythology, albeit a distortion thereof.
It’s less outrageously moronic, but still nothing I would really want to call “enlightened”. I’d personally prefer the term “almost-reasonable Christianity.”

Ta ta,

Fyrius

August 3rd, 2009
jeff3157's avatar jeff3157 said :

Regarding your answer:
thankyou that was what kind of answer I was looking for . . I never thought to go to Wikipedia.

April 16th, 2009
anoop66's avatar anoop66 said :

i have just finished my graduation in Computer Science. In which company do u work? what kind of work do you do?
Lol, I need a mentor in IT, be mine, pls

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