pz

In that spirit, I'd go so far as to say he is bold, audacious, daring, courageous, doughty, strong-minded, determined, indomitable, brave, fierce, undaunted, and unflinching. It would be hard to find anyone on ARN more forthright and confident than mturner. He should be proud.

Dr.GH

My only beef with mturner is that he has several times suggested that some book held great insights on topics I found interesting. I'd buy and read the damn book. I'd generally be disappointed. I would ask mturner to discuss the **** book and find out that he had never read it, and was not about to read it. I no longer bother.

When I first posted on ARN, mturner asked if I thought he should keep science textbooks next to his computer. He thought it was ridiculous when I sent him a list of the 30 or 40 I could reach from my chair.

Indeed, I see less and less reason to bother with ARN. The level of scholarship at ARN, and the creationist world generally, it very low. The ARN is as over run with YECs as any other creationist website. This is, IMO, appropriate, but I rather hoped that there would be a little more there there.

pz

That's a useful tack to take over there. It's amazing how often those bozos admit that they haven't actually read either the primary or secondary literature, or bungle their way through an abstract and then misrepresent the results of some bit of research.

All too often, the entire basis of any claim they make boils down to some superficial armchair philosophy that they dreamed up, sans experiment, sans information, sans common sense.

Lizard

The main reason ARN is a waste of time is that the IDers/YECs who post there do not really represent the party line or the true political core of the ID movement. If they did, it might be useful to spar with them to discover what the DI was up to, but as it is, there are only yes-people like Nobody (I have never seen any content in any of his/her posts) and people with strange non-evolutionary "theories" like EAM, which, as far as I can tell, is Neo-Lamarckism, which has been refuted for a looooong time.

Well, there might be some value in posting for the lurkers, but in general, I think it's a waste of time; I imagine most lurkers who land at ARN get there because they've read PJ's books or Wells' and are already ID-prone.

Overall, I enjoy posting here much more because there are many intelligent and well-informed people, scientists and non-scientists alike, who are good at explaining things a non-scientist like me can understand. The other reason is that you guys (and girls) have a great sense of humor. I have never noticed any great wit among creationists or IDers. I wonder why that is. Any ideas?

Anyhow, I've learned a lot here, and I'm very grateful that you all take the time to post.

Principia

Like rats abandoning a sinking ship, another fundie realizes he has to quit before he <a href="http://www.arn.org/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=13;t=000306" target="_blank">drowns</a>. Clearly, creationist has no love for Jebus!

pz

Stop that. You are going to offend all the <a href="http://www.jebus-is-lord.com/" target="_blank">Jebites</a>.

Although, to be fair, there are probably fewer sensitive Jebus-worshippers to offend on IIDB than on ARN -- which, apparently, is a real hotbed of Jebusism.

Principia

One wonders why Mike Gene is all worked up about defending Jebites against atheists today? Oh wait, I forgot -- he took on Douglas once (before ARN's 2nd crash) about Biblical interpretations. It's so hard to remember that MPD Mike Gene also has fundie Mike Gene as part of his act.

BTW, my answer to what is 'mental stability:' just as physiological stability is applied to mean the homeostasis of vital signs in medically defined norms, mental stability is applied to mean the maintainance of mental functions in medically defined norms (e.g. DSM-IV). The layperson can easily pick out a physically unhealthy individual just as he can pick out a mentally unhealthy individual, so MG's insistence on your defining 'mental stability' is just peevishness. Ask him if he thinks with all of his personae, whether he is mentally stable.

[ August 31, 2002: Message edited by: Scientiae ]</p>

pz

In nearby St. Cloud, MN, there is a fellow who hangs out in street corners, wearing a superman costume and acting like a superhero -- which seems to involve striking poses when anyone passes by.

In Lowry, MN, I met an old chicken farmer who spent an hour haranguing me about International Jewry, Henry Ford, and the local bankers, while reminiscing about his dog named Eva (after Hitler's mistress).

In Jenkintown, PA, there was a guy who, trite as it may sound, wears a tinfoil hat and peddles around town on his bicycle, which bears a big sign explaining about the CIA's mind control satellites.

There was a woman who daily rides back and forth on the Philadelphia subway system (I usually ran into her on the Orange line) wearing a sandwich board densely covered with biblical messages, who loudly and in a lovely rich gospel singer's voice declaims the sinfulness of us all and the impending end of the world.

I am a layperson. However, I can recognize when people hold extreme, irrational beliefs which become obsessions that disrupt their ability to function in the world around them.

Mike Gene apparently cannot. Unless, perhaps, he's got a psychiatry degree.

Dr.GH

RE: Foil

There is a very common practise by schizophrenics of wearing aluminium foil 'hats.' The personal accounts I collected (in an aborted start-up project) was that the foil blocked the 'voices/thoughts' in their heads.

Our hypothesis was that 1 or 2 degree C increase in their brain temperature might actually have some positive effect.

Anyway... Back to our regularly scheduled program...

pangloss

In response to:

that tower of scientific intellect, mturner, writes:
And this is the same guy who said that he would need someone to 'translate' an actual scientific paper for him to understand it?