The Bible Unearthed

[Frank 013]

Please do, Frank, we'd love to have you. Robert & Stuart are also members over there too.

What is the web address?

[Vishnu]

http://freethoughtnation.com/forums/

[Frank 013]

Cool... Thanks!

[Frank 013]

Well I signed up and tried to post this morning, but I got a message that said my posts must be reviewed before they will be viewable.

Waiting…

[Vishnu]

Yeah, c'mon Tat, you're a mod over there, can you cut Frank a break?

Sorry Frank, that's one of the rites of initiation. You have to make a few posts before they'll let you post freely, just to make sure you're not a troll.

[Frank 013]

I figured as much... I'm mostly just reading the threads right now... I made a couple of posts and the first one came through… it says I am anonymous… just like the gospels

[Frank 013]

Hey I did not see one, but is there an intro thread over there?

[Vishnu]

If you mean like an "introduce yourself" type thread, then yeah-
Getting to know you

But if you mean intro as in "welcome to our forum, here's what we're about:", then I don't know, I'll have to see.

[Vishnu]

There must be a god! What took so long? He must have cut the donation cord!

Indeed. I wanted to do this SOOO bad when I first saw the news, but I wasn't sure how Chris would feel about it, since he's such a diplomat & all, but, ahhh, what the hell!

[Robert Tulip]

I'm glad that Booktalk has finally banned Stahrwe. Thanks Chris and moderators. It really was inevitable in view of his continual flouting of the rules of the board regarding civil and intelligent conversation.

Many of the Starhwe annals present case studies in the refutation of popular errors, giving instructive and entertaining psychological portraits of some one taking dogmatic assumptions to their logical conclusion. Considering that nearly half the American people apparently agree with him on some of his ideas, it was reasonable to let him self-destruct in such spectacular fashion. But the fact is he was a pest and a fool who drove away valuable members and crowded out the space for sensible discussion. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

This thread, for example, could present an opportunity to talk about the real implications for Finkelstein's research on the status of religion today. Instead, Stahrwe turned it into a discussion of his own stupidity and inability to follow reasoned argument. The information that Finkelstein presents about the evolution of the Jewish religion is quite extraordinary in its scholarly rigor and its ability to sap the edifice of faith. So in a way it is useful that Stahrwe made such a quixotic effort to rebut Finkelstein, as he had all the impact of a flea on an elephant, or a knight errant tilting at windmills.

I was thinking about Vishnu's question on the straw that broke the camel's back, and it really was a gradual accumulation over a long period. His comments here about camels as beasts of burden was just one small example of presenting propaganda to deny scientific evidence. His whole agenda of proselytizing and preaching in defense of a ludicrous mentality was pursued with such stubborn vigor that you have to shake your head in wonder.

Booktalk is really a hidden backwater, only seen by the tiny number of people who seek it out. Nothing said here ever seems to get quoted anywhere else, and many comments just seem to disappear unremarked. I suspect that may change, as the zeitgeist becomes more receptive to discussion of ideas. Allowing such licence to a blatant troll is a mark of commitment to respect for diversity of opinion and freedom of speech. But that respect can be abused, and it seems that part of Stahrwe's agenda was to abuse the freedom granted to him by making it difficult for people to have sensible and respectful conversations. Many people must have had one look at some of Stahrwe's comments and decided Booktalk wasn't for them. It shows the risks that come from extending tolerance to someone who just wants to convert people to an obsolete mentality of faith that ignores the evidence of the senses.