Btodd
Well-Known Member
He's ably demonstrated that by lying about his profession. It just...I guess its hard to get my head around how someone who is so committed to what they believe they wont even consider other options
I don't understand the mindset, either. To harp on the same comparison I often make, it's exactly the dilemma scientists face with Creationism.
If you stop and debate with them, you've given people the impression that there's a genuine controversy. You bestow a degree of legitimacy on them that they refuse to earn in the same way their opponents did.....with the scientific method. It's like rewarding them for failure.
How many times should we continue to engage someone who repeats 'melted steel' and 'free fall speeds', or 'pull it' and 'bushie loyalist'? At some point, you have to call it willful dishonesty, and decide if it's better to stop giving him the platform to spread (at best) nonsense and (at worst) intentional lies. In Terral's case, the lunacy is so pronounced that I think only the most hardcore of reality-deficient twoofer would survive the onslaught of laughter.
But for the overall scope of twoofers, I still haven't decided on this. The flip side is that they get to spout nonsense unchallenged, like a free pass to spit in the face of reality, and try to take a bunch of other people with them into mental oblivion. I don't like that thought, either.
I don't know if anyone's mind is ever changed.....it seems very rare. I think that the old adage of 'you can't use reason to talk someone out of something, if they didn't use reason to get into it' is pretty accurate. Here's an exception, so maybe it's still worth it. What do you think?
www.extruther.blogspot.com
I love the fact that he links to the JREF Forums now.
Btodd
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