"JAC your way of explaining things really intrigues me. Could you imagine if you,Tim and I could brainstorm together. It would sure be interesting to say the least."
Interesting perhaps, but that would depend on how long my patience would last.
Jac doesn't often explain things; he posts gobs of data that almost no one can properly understand, and provides links to pseudo-science and conspiracy theory websites. Jac is a nice guy, but unfortunately he often displays (what is clear to me anyway) irrational beliefs. He's clearly very intelligent but he's also a good "propagandist"; that is, he's good at leading the reader into believing something is important when in reality it's not (either that or he himself doesn't fully understand what he posts.)
All of us have different personalities, interests, goals, etc. and it's fine they all converge here; but let me be perfectly clear about myself.....
I'M A HARD CORE RATIONALIST.
Too hell with modesty....I have a high IQ (~135) and I know how to think and analyze. Reading a zillion books and essays over 50 years doesn't hurt either. In the real world, my friends call me an intellectual - not because I know everything about anything but because I can converse deeply on just about any subject. I love science, but I'm hardly limited to that. Anyway....
If we all met would I be entertaining, boring, or challenging? Probably all three at one time or another. I might ask embarrassing questions like: "which is more likely; Jesus returning from the dead, in defiance of the most powerful, immutable laws of physics...or that a handful of Jews lied to further their cause?" When it comes to bronze-age mythology, I don't hold back!
But I do have a relaxed side. I like walking, bike riding, swimming, boating, fishing, (I'll pass on the hunting - thank you), and stuff like that. Heck, I used to be a darned good bowler!
Imagine you had 50 years experience fishing, and you were kicking back with a beer in a bar. Then in comes some dude with 2 or 4 years fishing experience and he begins chatting about his knowledge of fishing. Everyone laps it up, thinking he's a fishing genius. The REALITY of the situation would be that you knew far more about fishing - but the "masses" would believe what they heard simply because they "liked it." This is how religion, Fox News, etc. operate. But getting this simple concept through the thick skulls of Americans is frick'n impossible. It's not that liberals and secular people are brilliant - they're often not - it's that religious conservatives, through endless feedback since childhood - have terrible analytical (critical thinking) skills!
I do get intense about science; not only because I love it, but because I'm so infuriated by its rejection by the masses - and the consequences we all pay for that. If Iran or some other religious nation goes to war because it's "God's will", so be it....but I sure as heck don't want MY country to go to war on such "advice." (Thanks a lot Bush.)
I'm an avid student of world history, and as you surely know, it's a brutal subject. The living nightmare of Christianity that triggered the Dark Ages in the 400s didn't end until the 1800s when Napoleon put an end, once and for all, to the Spanish Inquisition that so terrorized Europe for ages. (1 in the plus column for France, thank you.)
That most Christians are clueless about their own history is bad enough, but to have to suffer the crushing political weight they carry is for me - sheer torture.
If anyone has some serious reading time, I HIGHLY recommend this essay on "The New Inquisition."
http://richarddawkins.net/articles/566272-the-new-inquisition-the-roman-catholic-man-cult-s-modern-war-on-women
When I hear people say "oh, don't worry about it, religion is harmless", I just want to SCREAM!
Well...I could go on and on, but as you can tell, I'm quite an intolerant person when it comes to those who reject science - which by definition is the description of reality.
Tim in NC
P.S. If you think I'm tough on Christianity, you should see me on Islam, an idiotic religion that began in 610 A.D. and remains centuries behind Christianity.
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