Readers’ beefs

November 7, 2015 • 1:30 pm

For some reason, over the past few months there have been fewer attempts to post by the angry faithful, creationists, and sundry other rude or misguided people. I’m glad, for in the past some of those comments were a bit distressing to me—even though my skin has grown palpably thicker over my past 5.5 years on this site.

Ergo, today I have but two readers with serious beefs, readers who won’t be seen here again. First, reader “feelsbe4reals” (what a name!) wanted to put up this comment on my post “Black Caturday: Hili dialogue”. And what a place to put this comment!:

the following are required for a meaningful life:

(1) Eternal life
(2) Absolute infinite qualitative goodness

In this life, we have neither eternal life nor absolute infinite qualitative goodness. This is why laymen correctly identity the existence of God as something necessary for life to have meaning, because God is absolute infinite qualitative goodness.

In order for a meaningful system of morality, the following are required:

(1) Free will
(2) Infinite value of moral agents

No matter how good an atheist is, he can never guarantee the existence of (2), because this requires the existence of God. Immanuel Kant is the one who closest came to a totally descriptive but absolute system of morality, but it fell short of the morality of Jesus Christ because he had no way to guarantee the infinite moral worth of human beings.

Oh, the certainty of this person’s judgment! And how sad for the rest of us to finally see that our lives are meaningless. I wonder what the difference is between “absolute infinite qualitative goodness” and “absolute infinite quantitative goodness”? After all, infinite is infinite, and can you really measure anything that is “qualitative”?

*******

Wannabee reader Daniel Knight, who included a link to his own website, Knight’s Christian Commentaries And Worldwide News, tried to make two comments on my post about Lawrence Krauss’s New Yorker piece, “Krauss on entanglement“:

Comment #1:

Stop perpetuating myths you moron. Like with “The dark side of Buddhism” moron atheist mainstream science cultists are always siding with and flirting with Buddhism, not Christians and yet you pretend it’s anti evolution/atheism? Even the Dalai Lama moron claims Christianity is not a religion and you’re pretending it’s antiatheism? Stupid idiot you are more proof atheism is moronic. There is no evidence for “NO GOD” stupid, living fossils cancel out any possibility of evolution and there are so many of them it’s obvious they aren’t millions or billions of years old and ooparts are extremely strong evidence against evolution and on and on and on. You are a backwards delusion idiot. As you morons say: ignorance is bliss (but really it’s not, because it gets you humiliation and leads to Hell), although it’s a vague statement so in some cases it’s good not to know certain things like all the stupid information cluttering the minds of so many morons like yourself.

I’d say this would be a troll except his website is for real. In the above I count six uses of “moron” or “moronic”, with a couple of “idiot”s thrown in for good measure. The funny bit is that on his own site, referring to his commenting policy on the “about me” page, Knight says this:

Further: when you start a sentence off with an insult, or type long rants or make repeated posts using a fake name and especially email: I consider that harassment, just like you hypocritical morons would if that were done to you.

So isn’t this harassment? At least he didn’t use a fake name (I think).

But that wasn’t enough for Knight. Here’s his comment #2:

Oh and on entanglement, how can you even dare to bring this up since it refutes Einstein’s Big Bang (Big Flop) nonsense? Losers., you perpetuate new age science and try and sound informed by mentioning opposing contradictory views. Doesn’t work on me.

Of course, I couldn’t care less what works on him. His first step should be to step away from the keyboard and move out of his parents’ basement.

97 thoughts on “Readers’ beefs”

  1. “I wonder what the difference is between “absolute infinite qualitative goodness” and “absolute infinite quantitative goodness”?”

    It’s a great accomplishment that someone could write so much, yet not make a single true statement.

    1. I see nothing that forestalls a troll from having a web site. Nothing.

      He seems to have a rather bad word tick. Throwing out insults like they are confetti.
      He should look up “moron” sometime. Comes from the age of out in the open Eugenics. A means of classifying people by a prejudiced criteria. And moron came in three levels. All of them of the 2 digit IQ variety. And went against the poor, the foreign, the poor, the not so white European.

      1. I’m not sure whether I should say “thanks” for providing that link or not! I was wondering wtf an “oopart” was though, too. 🙂

          2. Call me a stick-in-the-mud, but I think instead of letting them have their special terms, we should call them what they are: hoaxes, misinterpretations, mistakes, or just plain fuc*ing stupidity. In fact, I think that should be a hashtag: #PFS

          4. You arboreal argillite stratification crossing ooparts, you!
            I’m sure out Latin – speakers can dress it up a bit.

          5. Are they flying, swimming, climbing, or driving? Or all of them. (See “Robur the Conqueror.”)

      4. What I was about to say was that, of course, as a field geologist and occasional amateur archaeologist, the careful recording of “place” generates a HUGE amount of paperwork, and leads to a severe decline in “ooparts”. But they still do happen. There is nothing to prevent, for example a Saxon (8th C) builder who is packing a post into a hole dug through Roman (1 – 4th C) deposits, from including fragments of Neolithic tools in his back – fill dirt. Mrs Saxon doesn’t care- it’s just dirt. But deciphering sequences like that is PRECISELY why fieldwork requires pernickety attention to detail. And fastidious recording.
        But people here probably know that, and the likes of our exhibits above will take it as evidence of God – hating atheist conspiracy. (Isn’t that a contradiction in terms?)

        1. You’re probably one of those people removing all the rabbit fossils from the pre-Cambrian.

          3. Got a cellar full of them. I always carry a stromatolte and a chisel when on the PreCambrian, in case I need to do a little correction to the geological record.

  3. Daniel Knight has poor manners to accompany his poor reasoning and argumentation skills.

    Was Einstein even the person who originated the big bang theory? (Not the tv show.)

    1. I think Einstein was trying to figure out an eternal universe, actually. A real physicist could correct me, but it may even have been the prime motivation to fudge the cosmological constant.

    4. Actually, it was Georges Lemaitre, a Jesuit priest who found that the big bang was a prediction of Einstein’s equations of General Relativity.

      1. Which just shows (contemplating Lemaitre and Daniel Knight respectively):

        1. Not every Catholic is a blinkered ignoramus.

        2. Not every cat-holic is automatically intelligent.

        😉

      2. As I pointed out yesterday 😉

        When I was in Catholic high school, the Big Bang was interpreted as supporting Genesis – a single act of divine creation. And evolution was accepted (as long as you understood that there was somehow divine guidance in there).

        1. Note of course that’s almost as wrong as denying it – since the theory says nothing of the kind. “Universe” has been *coopted* to mean local hubble volume, and this is a shame.

    5. The Knight name is a common one in certain parts of the US, particularly in the South, where I assume Daniel is. He certainly didn’t learn Southern manners! Fortunately, most of the Knights I am related to have a more enlightened view of the Cosmos than poor Daniel does.

    6. No, I’m pretty sure Einstein’s theory was the Big Absolute Infinite Qualitative Super-Sublime-Goodness Bang Fizzle Pop theory. Subtitled: Made easy for morons.

  4. Knight’s Christian Commentaries and Worldwide News
    Commentaries by a Christian and disabled person, Daniel Knight

    I guess he is correct, being Christian and disabled do go hand in hand. He is severely delusional – just peruse his website to see how he just makes shit up.

    1. Being Christian and disabled don’t go hand in hand. Of course, there are a few who think the damage I’ve sustained over the years is divine retribution.

      One Christian even told me that I was put into her life by God as an inspiration on how to handle adversity. Not quite sure how the logic works there.

      1. The near infinity of workings of the mighty engine—the human mind. Regardless of how it is used.

    2. I was thinking Vizzini:

      Vizzini: I can’t compete with you physically, and you’re no match for my brains.
      Man in Black: You’re that smart?
      Vizzini: Let me put it this way. Have you ever heard of Plato, Aristotle, Socrates?
      Man in Black: Yes.
      Vizzini: Morons.

  6. godbots consider existence a dress rehearsal

    and they are confused and angry when their childish emotionalism are rejected

    life can’t be meaningful when they are afterlife oriented

    1. I have run into a few like that. That is, people who do not seem to really have their feet in this world, so convinced are they that they are heading toward an eternal afterlife in paradise.

      1. that they could enjoy heaven while others are in hell for wearing poly/cotton blends, is also telling about them. I hope they enjoy heaven with all the repentant rapists and murderers

  7. I too enjoyed the superfluous use of “moron”, “stupid” and “idiot”. His comment on his own site just adds to the enjoyment (especially because he used “moron” again).

    1. I always find it really funny when someone has a word or phrase they use a lot like that. The problem is, once I notice it, I can’t help smiling every time I hear them use it. Which gets me some funny looks.

      I do it to myself too though. When one of my nephews, who I looked after a lot, first started talking, he used the word “actually” all the time. It made me realize how much I use it. Now, every time I say it (for more than ten years now) I’m conscious it might be unnecessary or I’m overusing it.

        2. Thinking of small people, my wife related a conversation between two infants that a friend of hers nannies for.

          She: I belief in God.
          He: I don’t.
          She: You have to tell me why you don’t believe.
          He: Dinosaurs.

          /@

          2. That’s actually (ahem) pretty impressive! Not to mention, cute.

            (Though at that age, I’d call both of them brainwashed.)

  8. Hmm. It was only six morons/moronics. It seemed like more than than. I’ll admit to being a moron, though; I actually looked at his website, and read some of his stuff.

    1. Hey, there will be a bunch of us moron losers watching SNL tonight – staring Donald Trump.

  9. Well, they are two very special people. The 2nd one seems very certain that an advanced and continuous education in science, culture, and history only leads to you being labelled by his favorite word. What was it? Here is a hint: M***n.
    This reminds me when I recently pulled into our neighborhood grocery store parking lot, and steered toward a parking space next to a well abused pick up truck. But I noticed it was covered in hand painted slogans about ‘Merica and freedom and gun rights…
    I just kept looking for a space somewhere else.

  10. I’m looking at his website. Ranting raving loon with a cash flow problem.

    “I’m starting my cattery and intend to create eight distinct new cat breeds….”

    His eight new cat breeds will be so distinctive that there will be nine of them!

    “Breed type 9 is intended to be like type 1’s but with a cat-to-cat loving personality, that is a cat that loves to cuddle with other cats. It may turn out to be a cat that is crossed between Birman and common black short-haired cats.”

    “To pre-order these cats $5,000 of $10,000 must be put down with a wait time of up to 3-5 years to achieve the desired type and if the type of cat intended is not specifically achieved a refund of half is returned, half, because of the time and effort commissioned for the job (I’m not working for free in other words).”

        2. “I spent much of my youth studying various religions, especially Christianity, the latter to the extreme. It didn’t make me a good person and I never came close to being a good person and think I qualify for a solid decent person, a little better actually. I also spent much time studying alternative housing, energy, propulsion, medicine and nutrition, in other words didn’t believe whatever mainstream scientists claimed was true and possible in their stubborn pride… I’d also like to create a huge refuge for unwanted cats and, starships.

          ”
          Oh man, that hurts. Looks like the Gofundme was started Oct 11. A friend had recently remarked about the good that religion does, the prime example being the Salvation Army. I remarked that perhaps things are rosy out where she was but locally, they tended to make everything hinge on their proselytizing. I should’ve added that in addition, it also canalizes the disorganized thought processes made worse by the religious-themed delusions in the brains of those they purport to help. Big kudos to Reagan and Thatcher, who simultaneously destroyed mental health services here and abroad. Not good at all.

          2. I have to admit you’re right. At least his goal of establishing a comprehensive rock and fossil museum on somebody else’s property was more laudable than attaining the Presidency.

          1. Bored, I went and looked at the guy’s website. You really are right – the guy seems in bad shape, and doesn’t seem too good at making friends either.

            I’ve got to admit that reading the comments on his ‘about me'(I was intrigued) section made me laugh out loud: he’s so spectacularly rude and ungracious; permanently annoyed at what he perceives as the pointlessness and idiotic irrelevance of the commenters’ questions – every reply he posts is irritable and insulting. After I realised they were all like that it became very funny.
            There are actually a few entirely supportive, sweet-natured fellow-Christians who reach out to him who get absolutely excoriated. Even the posts that agree with him entirely and make a point of praising what he’s doing get brusque, perfunctory replies.

            I appreciate that it’s not at all funny in reality, but I couldn’t help laughing.

    2. Wow, you get half back if the cats are nothing like as advertised? Only $2,500 for a random kitten, after waiting 3 years. Still, better than the mere $35,000 to bring allowed to clone his current teenage cat:

      “I’m offering for the price of $35,000 to allow my teen cat PussPussPuss…to be cloned and of course the clone given to whoever put up the money. The cloning will, Lord willing commence when I get five orders, or if you’re willing to pay the price x 5 to speed things up. “

      [emphasis added]

      So…for a mere $175,000 (“to speed things up”) you will be “allowed” to clone PussPussPuss.

      https://eternian.wordpress.com/2015/05/18/clone-pusspusspuss-the-kitten-for-50000-and-help-her-and-her-owner-get-a-home/

      I think this person is unwell in many ways.

      2. I think this person is unwell in many ways.

        Yeah. This just makes me feel kind of sad for him. His poor grasp of science seems like the least of his problems.

  11. [rubs hands]

    #1:

    the following are required for a meaningful life:

    (1) Eternal life

    In order for a meaningful system of morality, the following are required:

    (1) Free will

    By implication exhibit #1 has never nor will ever have a meaningful and moral life.

    That lack of decent clothing doesn’t bother most others. They find their own meaning and morality, besides the morality that has evolved in the social species that humans is.

    #2:

    Exhibit #2 absolutely no idea about science – evolution is a fact, entanglement has nothing to do with the classical model of modern cosmology – yet oddly wants to rant on the subject.

    A decidedly odd, and failed, choice of wardrobe. Also, the drool around the incessantly working mouth sounding “moron” is unseemly up on the stage.

    Really, is this the best the fall season of creationists has to offer? Vestments are fast going out of fashion!

    1. Since most of the Creationist/ID group really are not well versed in their own “science” or don’t care to elaborate on it because really who wants to study it when it isn’t natural at all and therefore useless. They know this. However real naturalist scientists don’t and do their diligence in research to a deeper level than any Creationist is really going to.

      Eternal Life. As what? Certainly not as a human. But then part of the sales pitch is that there will be new, immortal bodies given to everyone before the Final Judgment, after the Second Resurrection, where we got shuttled to Eternal Bliss in servitude or Eternal pain in punishment by a most jealous deity.

      I suspect that the most advanced races who survive the other trials and tribulations of existing get to that point. They control all biological, chemical and even nuclear fusion and seem like gods to their ancestors will have it. A way to exist as long as they want in any form they want. Until then most don’t want such an existence if they will be alone.
      Either you are a monster or a sad immortal as portrayed with staggering regularity in our popular media, including Dr. Who. Disappointing to me.

  12. It’s possible that instead of his parent’s basement, he’s living in their survivalist fall-out shelter.

  14. Oh, good grief, not Daniel Knight!

    I had a ‘run in’ with this idiot several years ago. I had the most obnoxious email from him when I queried why he accused Carl Sagan of being theif (sic). He’s a total nutcase.

  15. You’re lucky.

    I get “the world’s leading expert on intelligent design”, who claims his work involves researching bacterial intelligence, posting one line obscenities, updates on the latest dimensions of his genitalia and how many times he’s ejaculated over a picture of me.

    He probably feels this refutes my blogs and strikes a mighty blow for Jesus and his hero, Michael Behe.

    Other creationists are not so eloquent. Unfortunately, Blogger doesn’t have a selective blocking function.

    1. THAT sounds like a job for the police. Most of them are “sound and fury, signifying nothing”, but that one sounds dangerous.

    2. He really sounds as though he’s seriously mentally impaired. One of the points he made in his emails to me, in between the expletives and insults, was how intelligent he is, and has succeeded in devising the only ‘true’ religion!

      (Which is, of course, Pastafarianism)

  16. I hope Prof CC(E) will forgive if I post an example of my own – the apocalypse spam I’m getting (‘Obama is conspiring with ISIS to take your guns away, watch this video’) has just morphed into something even weirder:

    Hi,

    If you’re a Christian man or woman who wants to lose weight but can’t no matter what you do or how hard you try you must stop whatever you’re doing watch this astonishing…..

    ==>>Video Right Now
    http://www.perfectdiet.org.in/l/lt11U1010SK58K/443S1408JK2141BQ29SB4804353JN643073738xxx
    [remove the ‘xxx’ to restore this link – at your peril, it probably links to a trojan – cr]

    This video is incredibly important and could even save your life or the life of people you love because it reveals a newly-discovered Biblical Weight Loss Secret which thousands of Christians are using to permanently banish fat from their bodies without dangerous “fad” diets, “skinny pills” or brutal, dangerous exercise.

    For Christians Only – Biblical Secret To Rapid, Permanent Weight Loss
    http://www.perfectdiet.org.in/blahblah...

    WARNING: Liberal “Scientists” and Atheist Extremists are FURIOUS that the Biblical secrets in this video are getting out and are battling to have this video taken down. If you want to gain the “Biblical Body” The Lord intended for you must watch this video now while you still can.
    http://www.perfectdiet.org.in/sameblah…

    Best,
    Your’s Well Wisher

    Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me.
    “Jesus Christ”

    Yeah, Jeeesus fricking Christ!

    I do like that they’re looking to save me from brutal dangerous exercise, whatever that is. Wrestling gorillas maybe?

    cr

  17. I’m always perplexed why so many Christians are so full of hate. I guess they don’t agree with Jesus.

    1. They like the rip out souls and take no name Jesus of Revelation. Not the fearful hide alot good guy telling everyone to pay those hated Roman taxes.

  18. ” . . . you moron . . . moron . . . moron . . . Stupid idiot . . . moronic . . . stupid . . . backwards delusion idiot . . . morons . . . stupid information . . . morons like yourself.”

    It was mighty Christian of him to say that, eh?

    ” . . . Knight’s Christian Commentaries And Worldwide News,” eh? More like a cranium-wide raving echo chamber.

    1. Which makes his own comment policy evidence of staggering obliviousness. Not only are his comments on WEIT liberally seasoned with insults, he actually insults his general readership in the comments policy itself! That right there makes me wonder about a possible Poe…

  20. By the way, I would recommend staying away from Knight’s website. For all that it’s a treasure-chest of comedy gold, it also appears to be a vector for malware.

  23. “There is no evidence for NO GOD”

    I regret to inform you, Mr. Knight, that as there is no evidence you are not a murderer, the police will be along shortly to escort you to prison where you will spend the rest of your life. It’s an airtight case.

    …move out of his parents’ basement.”
    Zing!

  24. I love the thoughtful “metacriticism” of “believer-faith” rhetoric and find myself resonating more to the second case study than the first. And I think that is because for the general hope that dogmatic “believers” I want to think that the ones who are smart enough to enjoy this illuminating, serious but often playful website will be welcomed to return again and again. So I in that spirit, consider a thoughtful comment that clearly shows listening as well as telling. Perhaps if I reread the first posting you censored, I will end up agreeing with your rejection of it, but on first take, I think it would be kinder and more hopeful to listen and eventually post a clarifying comment.

  25. If life were eternal then everything that can happen will happen. After enough time everyone will be living the exactly the same life as everyone has done everything, learned everything, experienced everything, everyone will end up the same.
    Because the fact that people do die then this life we are all living now is meaningless because it is not eternal. The meaning can only start once we die and have moved to that place were eternal life starts.
    These thoughts are quite dull and depressing it is no wonder they feel they must share their beef wherever people will listen.

  26. The answer to the complaint “if atheism is true, then life can have no meaning!” does not have to be “yes it can!” It can be “so what?” In other words, if for the sake of argument, we grant the premise that life without a god or eternal life, or whatever other conditions are demanded is in fact meaningless, so what? No argument has been made, only a complaint. “Boo hoo, life has no meaning…” Hmm, you don’t like that life has no meaning? Well, that’s too bad. That life has no meaning is not a reason to believe that any of the conditions that would supposedly give life meaning are actually true.

    2. A quote from Dawkins I heard on a local (E. Tennessee) public radio program in the late 90’s:

      “The palatability of a proposition has no bearing on its truth.”

      That hit me like a ton of bricks. I only had to hear that once to remember it.

      It’s right up there with Hitch’s “Assertions made without proof may be dismissed without proof.”

      1. Sam Harris’ analogy is my favorite – the neighbor with the huge diamond buried in his backyard.

    3. In a conscious species, a false belief that life has meaning will surely increase fitness.

      So, when someone says “I can’t believe life has no meaning”, are they displaying their fitness to potential mates?

      Does Fisherian runaway sexual selection lead to more and more preposterous yet adamantly held theories of life’s meaning?

  27. It seems that PCCE attracts more attention from the deranged Xtians (loose sense ; very loose) than he does from deranged Muslims. If there were an influx of outraged Muslims, would we have a dose of “Readers hams”?

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