CK:
Frankly, I'm getting sick of message board debates. Is it really that difficult to communicate without the snideness, the sniping, the disrespect, the personal attacks?
From what I have seen over the course of the past few years, you don’t seem to mind the “snideness, the sniping, the disrespect, [and] the personal attacks” so long as it’s your guys heaping it upon someone you all believe deserves it.
And believe me, I’m quite familiar with the whole process involved.
It can get bad here, but MADB is the worst.
:shok:
I damn near choked when I read this.
It's just a great big mutual admiration society, a dogpile of people who think they know more than they really do and think you're stupid for disagreeing.
You’ve just described, with economical brevity, the circle jerk atmosphere that prevails here – and yet you are apparently quite sincere in believing that it describes the MAD board?
In-freaking-credible!This is the biggest pile of BS you have ever laid in all my association with you. The fact is that you are simply frustrated because your little pet subject area of “disproving” John Gee’s claims about the length of missing scroll is crumbling down around you right after you’ve committed yourself so publicly, and even had a triumphal post-Sunstone West victory party to seal the deal. I’m sure you had big plans to make a big splash at Sunstone in August; to show all your new-found exmormon acolytes what a smart man you are and what an imbecile the would-be Egyptologist John Gee is.
Just one problem: I and a group of my friends at FAIR spent a little time looking into this stuff, and we quickly realized that not only do
you have a bad argument, but that
we have a
great argument. The facts are virtually undeniable that the missing scroll length was significant. You know damn well that John Gee’s measurements, if they’re wrong at all (and they
might be to an extent – it’s a measurement nightmare) cannot be
that wrong.
Another thing: unless I’m mistaken, I think “Chap” saw the writing on the wall pretty early on and made the wise (and, frankly, somewhat admirable) decision to vacate this whole debate. I think he’s probably intellectually honest enough to realize that, given the existence of samples of papyrus as thin as 100 microns, it quickly becomes an unwinnable debate, especially given the import of Gee’s winding measurements.
But you’re “fully invested” in the argument at this point. And it’s going to be quite painful for you to disengage from it in the face of strong objective proof (read: mathematical) that
you are simply wrong.So, wring your hands for a few days. Swear at me a little if you’d like. Come back periodically and have the “community here at MDB” with their “fun and entertaining personalities” console you in your period of grief.
And then get over it, you big baby.
Either that, or stick with your indefensible arguments and disgrace yourself. As always, the choice is yours.