From: L' Ermit (lhermit@hotmail.com)
Date: Thu Jan 17 2002 - 16:22:28 MST
Like I said (and apparently it was something you didnt comprehend),
Kessinger Publishing caters to a niche market. Kessingers reprints. Also
noted is the fact that you have nothing to say about the introduction by the
author. Give it up, Hermit. Let this thread die, for the sake of your own
reputation.
Mermaid.
====
I simply sustained my point, by observing how effectively you had reinforced
it. I didn't need to address your farrago as it did not speak to the issue
at hand - the fact that source matters - and if you imagined that it did,
you seem to have forgotten to make your argument in your passion for lengthy
quotation. In any case, I'm fairly sure that most everyone else preferred my
brevity.
In any case, thanks for the concern about "my" reputation, I'll value it as
I think it deserves, but do think that your concern is misplaced. While the
avatar I project on the CoV has a "reputation," it is not "me", and assaults
on it will fail to annoy "me", precisely because of this.
I perceive it as such. You and Casey seem in danger of forgetting that
rational people judge others on "themselves", not on the reputation of their
on-line "avatars" (and besides, reputations are complex things indeed and
can be both positive and negative), the irrational go with whatever floats
their boat on a momentary basis. Thus it is that irrational people can
discard those whom they have known for years in favor of a transitory
phenomenon, but in so doing, they establish a negative reputation for
themselves (not their avatars). Which means that the rational will then
discount them as being irrational. Thus, those whose opinions I value will
take no great heed of this latest contretemps - and when it is over and the
inevitable splits occur, the rational involved in it will take a collective
breath and forget it - only the irrational will continue to beat their
breasts in anguish and try to argue why their unsubstantiated opinions
should have prevailed.
I don't have the faintest idea who is going to remain here when the dust
settles, and am completely aware that there will always be lamers in the
world, some of whom will find their way here, but as long as this church
remains a rational atheist forum, I will use my avatar to attempt to prevent
those who disdain rationality or promote theism from dominating it - and if
it ceases to be defensible as a rational, atheist forum I will be amongst
the first to leave. So you may as well resign yourself to a long period of
disagreement if that is what it takes. And the reputation of my avatar
concerns me not one whit.
Hermit
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