DiscussMormonism.com

Gadianton wrote:

Nightlion wrote:Once again, Gad, you prove yourself a master of putrification (sigh) and image craft.

Well golly gee Nightlion, if you say so. Now, how about coughing up that stake and nail you owe us?

Nightlion wrote:You should not have to wait long before I zing in with another stake to keep the awful monster at bay.

canpakes wrote:

The Erotic Apologist wrote:You're saying the (non-avian) dinosaurs died out due to sudden, acute mass infertility? Really???

I believe that the current favorite conservative explanation is the explosion of same-sex dinosaur unions.

canpakes wrote:

Nightlion wrote: Atheist zombies are fond of saying proof destroys free agency.

I thought that I'd most recently seen this claim made by believers, not atheists.

CameronMO wrote:This thread didn't read like I imagined it would. I came into it thinking that there were so many new wards in the Heart of Atheism, from all the new converts, that they had to create another stake. Boy, was I wrong.

Gadianton wrote:While this is more along the lines of attention-seeking than insanity, I will point out one aspect of Nightlion's irrationality that hasn't been commented on. He's well aware of his intentional fallacious questions and points that assume away his claims. This is for effect. What I don't think he's aware of his how internally inconsistent he is with the points he makes, nor how short his attention span is. In this thread, he began with promises of "another stake" he'd drive through the heart of atheism, but he couldn't even get through the post without forgetting what he wanted to say. Then he came back and made some stupid point, but closed up saying that "another nail" had flashed through his mind, and not only had he forgotten what metaphor he was on, stake through heart vs. nail in coffin, he had already forgotten what the "nail" was that just flashed through his mind just then, and promised to return with it. So he's down one stake, and one nail.

Then, he returns with a "bonus stake"; fortunately, he didn't forget that one as soon as he thought of it and was able to type it out. But he's getting awful sloppy with his metaphor -- a stake through the heart or silver bullet, like an Achilles heel, suggests a single point of failure kind of vulnerability. It makes little sense to pull the "lynchpin" from a wagon wheel five or six times before it comes off, or to pull the lynchpin after the wagon has already crashed. Likewise, to keep pumping a variety of arrows into the heel of Achilles or driving a variety of stakes the heart of a vampire, suggests stupidity in the fact that the deed has already been done and the act is of no consequence, or it suggests a situation other than single point of failure, and calls for a different metaphor.

He returns to make a point that, for whatever reason, isn't deemed a "stake", but by doing this shows he's now completely forgotten about the original stake he'd promised and the subsequent "nail" he also forgot about, and is using the thread for stream-of-conscious rather than to make an actual point. I doubt he even has a criteria for what counts as a "stake" that lays atheism dead vs. just some random thought; probably his points along with their consequences are interchangeable depending on his mood.

For his last two posts, he gets into spats with two of the contributors and apparently has not only forgotten the point he wanted to make with this thread, but has even forgotten he started the thread for a point.

The lesson here potentially is less about sanity, as I think Nightlion is perfectly sane, but more along the lines of the deterioration that comes in our ability to think clearly as we put so much effort into protecting ourselves from criticism. While Nightlion is likely very bright, the fact that he is not open to any criticism of his thinking in any way, and turns any refutations of his points into victories justified by some kind of silliness, has obviously taken its toll as no forethought is necessary in his posts since he does not consider it possible to be mistaken on any point. I don't think that he realizes that not only the intended irrationality comes across as "insane", such as all the "Once again me typing this very message proves that I have ridden to the highest heaven in glory..." but his unintended forgetfulness about the points he's trying to make, and inability to coherently put thoughts together over even a handful of posts, shows a sad deterioration in intellectual life that comes with years and years devoted to self-protection.

You read the stake notion that confounds the oft touted mockery that God is not more involved with human affairs as if in all man's disbelief and denial he still merit any.

The nail failed to measure up to the full statue of a stake in the heart of atheism and was a mere aside about proof and free agency.

You should not have to wait long before I zing in with another stake to keep the awful monster at bay.

Gunnar wrote:Nightlion, have you ever succeeded in convincing anyone, other than yourself, of the reality and significance of the signs and visions you perceive on Apocalrock? If not, can you at least admit the obvious fact that God chose an extremely poor and ineffective means of revealing his will to mankind, and a very poor choice of spokesman to interpret and disseminate his word?