openlyatheist

That sounds like the sane course of action to me.:notworthy:

When I first started interacting with religious people on the internet, and realizing how much of an atheist I really am, I soon became ADDICTED to the adrenaline rush of the arguments and the slander. I would rush home & log onto Christian websites to see what crap had been posted during the day.

I too eventually realized it was unhealthy and have started USING less and less. Now I'm taking karate lessons and getting out into the world again. :angel:

I always say: For atheists, the world is our church. That's where we should be.

Roger Pearse

Wise man. I've been there.

There is something about the medium that causes this effect on us all. We all need to make sure that we spend most of our time on positive things that we like and that others like with us, rather than fighting with people we know are wrong. Whether we are right or not, the latter experience is destructive. I try to spend much more time scanning stuff about the fathers and placing material online than in controversy.

And, in the end, who needs to hear anyone else's hatreds? (Which is what it becomes).

Take a good long break. Stay out of discussion fora altogether for 6 months if you can, and get your life back.

All the best,

Roger Pearse

No Robots

You can get the gist of it here.

Yellum Notnef

If anybody needs a break from the internet it's Bilbo Bloggins. What a douche bag!

Answerer

What happened? Why old Vork wanted to leave?

Chris Weimer

You really missed out on a lot, apparently.

Yellum Notnef

I guess. It seems to be a complete mystery as to what happened to all except for yourself and a very select few.
I can only go on the scant info provided and from that tiny bit Bilbo looks like a real jerk.

nygreenguy

Best wishes. They say there is a fine line between genius and insanity, perhaps your just figuring out which side you belong on? In any case, take care!

Chris Weimer

No, I apologize. I didn't realize who this Bilbo Bloggins character was, and assumed it to be a jab at the blogging community, i.e. Crossley and West.

spin

Through the good auspices of various people including Apikorus, I have started to understand some of the reality behind the withdrawal of Vork from public interaction on the internet.

Naughty Vork had the audacity to write a negative criticism of a book. This is a fairly normal act really, but the problem seems to come when a non-theist writes the criticism, going on the reaction of the author, someone called Doctor James Tabor, and his defensive offsider, someone called Doctor Jim West.

Here is a sample of the first doctor's literary style from here:

That's relatively nice compared to the other doctor's hysterical performance, both on his blog site, which I don't think deserves a link, and on the mailing list which he controls and therefore censors when he sees fit. Anyone who posts from a position which he cannot fathom or morally accept... zap goes the delete button. You'd have thought that inquisitorial attitudes had fallen by the way with the enlightenment, but this doctor seems to prefer the good old days, when a man was a man and heretics were put in their place.

The attack here came with two prongs:

1. I am educated because I have a doctorate in religion, whereas you are an ignorant know nothing who should neither be seen nor heard; and
   
2. You are an atheist who is wasting people's time arguing things which needn't bother anyone anymore as we have already decided you are wrong.

Silly Vork. Didn't he know his place?

What we learn is that you can be an elitist idiot with a doctorate who is not prepared to face the possibility that some of his fundamentally accepted notions can be challenged.

There is normally nothing wrong with challenging fundamental notions, for when you have faced the challenge you know whether the notions were worth holding or not. However, when those notions also just happen to be fundamental beliefs, good methodology is not necessarily a consideration.

There are intelligent christians who regularly post here, who have come into conflict with the non-standard ideas people present and have not simply resorted to rants and other tantrum-like reactions that the good second doctor so easily blurted in defence of the first good doctor.

What this shows is that time spent going through academia doesn't necessarily cash out in being open minded.

I've only got one thing to say on this issue, Vork: fuck 'em.


spin