Viti

Haran, I think you're just embarassed. WinAce took it down but you completely overreacted IMO.

Most people, even Christians, admit that some of those quotes are funny.

Godbert

I guess I'll have to explain it again really slowly:

Haran seems to find it somehow remarkable that some, perhaps even many atheists believe themselves to be more intelligent than theists.

I showed using ONLY population statistics - which are not my theories, as you seem to suggest above - that Harans being appalled at that is kind of pointless because there simply are many atheist who are more intelligent than theists. To illustrate this with a simple calculation I assumed an average IQ of 100 for atheists as well as theists and explicitly mentioned that it works the other way around too - since I seem to have to spell it out: meaning there are many theists who are more intelligent than almost all atheists as well.




In my judgement, a discussion of atheist v theist intelligence is not relevant to Haran's OP except insofar as it provides evidence for the contention WinAce quoted. As it turns out, my judgement (in conjunction with my colleagues' judgements and the split and merge functions) is pretty much the determining factor of thread direction.


I just think it would be helpful for a moderator to actually read the posts in the current thread instead of attacking posters on what they wrote somewhere else. If you did that you would notice that I was one of the few people in this thread actually addressing Harans statements, both old and rephrased one, and showed that the latter was meaningless using simple statistics that had absolutely nothing to do with my views on average atheist vs theist intelligence I voiced in some other thread.
Instead of pointing pointing out any fault in my numbers (which would be hard except for meaningless nitpicking about minor percentage adjustments I think) all i got was wiseass remarks in response yet you, the moderator, chose to attack me.

Maybe I should make a little analogy since everyone here seems so touchy about intelligence (I wonder why):
Haran could just as well have said with indignation that some atheists seem to think they are taller than theists - to which I would have replied that there is nothing to whine about since statistically there clearly are some atheists that are taller than most theists and vice versa. And if I was 7 foot tall I would have mentioned that to illustrate my point.

I think I'm done here

Clutch

I took the quote's alleged "darndedness" to reside in its unqualified generalization. It was not remotely accurate -- no more than "Theists are stupid" is remotely accurate, though again one could cite plenty of environments in which the bulk certainly are.

But it is also the sort of inaccuracy that can result from posting hurriedly, or expecting the context of utterance to clarify intent, or some such. Even were that not the case with this particular quote (though Haran suggests it was, and his word should prima facie settle it), the quote did not strike me as rising to "darndest thing" status.

livius drusus

I see no need to explain really slowly or in any other manner why your post responding to a comment Haran made in a PD thread is off-topic here. The other participants seem to have grocked the point quite easily.

As for the rest of your post, your sarcasm and condescension is as inapproriate addressed to me as it is addressed to anyone else. If that is to be the sum total of your contribution to this thread, then I think it's a good thing indeed that you are done here.

livius drusus

I agree of course that the unqualified generalization is what made the comment a candidate for darndedness, but even considering the NK context, I too don't really see how it made the final cut. Judging from the other denizens of WinAce's sideshow, darndest thing status requires a certain soup�on of utter disconnect from reality missing from Haran's quote.

Godbert

[QUOTE]Originally posted by livius drusus
I see no need to explain really slowly or in any other manner why your post responding to a comment Haran made in a PD thread is off-topic here. The other participants seem to have grocked the point quite easily.

Seems I'm not quite done.
Neither do I see any need for you to explain that, since I simply was not responding to some comment Haran made in PD you just brought up for the first time. Again I recommend you read the actual posts here before moderating or whatever you call what you are doing here. If anyone was bringing up posts from other threads it was you.
I responded to Harans quote and rephrasing of it at the top of THIS thread, which you might want to browse over before moderating it, and found his rephrasing even more worthy of "christians say the darndest things" than the original.


As for the rest of your post, your sarcasm and condescension is as inapproriate addressed to me as it is addressed to anyone else.

Oh really, but when I got nothing but sarcasm and condescension in response to my initial completely factual posts you not only saw nothing wrong with that but decided to chime in and completely misrepresent my post as well as bring up completely irrelevant other threads in the process.


If that is to be the sum total of your contribution to this thread, then I think it's a good thing indeed that you are done here.

I'm still waiting for any response pointing out what exactly was factually wrong in my post instead of your pointless whining about how mean I am. I'm not your mommy and I really don't care.
I did provide statistical numbers based on fact to show how deserving Harans rephrased statement was of a place in the darndest things listing whereas all you did in response to my post was personally attack me, whine around and bring up numerous other threads that are completely unrelated to this one.

livius drusus

You may contact me privately for clarification or you may take it up in a Bugs thread, but your derailments here are over. The next such excrescence I see from you will become a Bugs thread by virtue of the split function.

Thank you,
livius drusus
Moderator, GRD

Vorkosigan

:notworthy:notworthy:notworthy:

Great post, Godbert, enjoyed it very much. I can't PM you, because you seem to have disabled that function.

Vorkosigan

Haran

And had you read the context of the original threads from which the comment came, you'd realize (like some others here already do) that it is a perfectly legitimate statement. That is the problem with such a website that will take a person's quote out of context and stick that person's name or moniker to it anyway as if that little quote tells the whole story. I appreciated the fact that there was at least a link back to the thread, but most won't read much if any of the context. Believe me, I've noticed that from posting links to different kinds of material that rarely if ever gets read.

The point of most of the posts that I was making was to demonstrate the arrogance of some atheists who think they are more intelligent than theists.

Thanks for demonstrating my point.

Haran

Embarrassed about what? In context, I would still stand by many of my ripped quotes.

Annoyed is the more appropriate word.

For how long? I had no expectations of the site being removed.

I simply started another thread to show the kind of arrogance I was trying to point out in the threads from which those quotes were ripped.

If I am overreacting, it is only to make a point.

I'm sure some of the quotes are somewhat funny at someone's expense.