Called a Jerk for Using the Word Freethinker
Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007 7:52 pm
After having a debate with two Mormons at nine-moons.com they ended the thread by calling me a jerk and closing the thread prematurely. I couldn't find an email on the site so I just posted this comment on the newest thread, see here: http://www.nine-moons.com/2007/02/09/go ... mment-7369
They have just ignored it so far.
When I was an active LDS member I don't remember being like that. Maybe I've forgotten the mindset?
As of 2/12/07 they deleted my message from their thread. So I re-posted the following message on the newest thread on their site:
Hey this is w.Kempton,
I just read the blog titled, Does Religion or Atheism Offer A Better Route To Unselfishness? By Rusty - February 6, 2007 (at http://www.nine-moons.com/2007/02/06/do ... mment-7238).
At the end I am called a "condescending jerk." So I went back to the blog to see what would cause such a response? Apparently my use of the term "freethinker" elicited this response. Jeff Ricks and I were making arguments for secular morality and when I had to leave my computer I made one final comment; after stating that I had to go and couldn’t continue explaining the possible evolutionary origins of altruism and how the Communist parties weren’t acting in the name of humanism, I said “…Hopefully another freethinker will join in on this blog and explain things further. I gotta go.” Some guy named Tom then responded:
“freethinker … Nonsense. What a condescending jerk.”
Then a guy named Rusty says:
“Yeah, it’s probably time to close comments on this one.”
They then closed the comment box so I couldn’t explain to them that I wasn’t being condescending at all! Since in the blog I was giving a secular perspective, and the terms humanist and naturalist were used a lot, I assumed they were aware of the term freethinker. Because in context, my final comment meant that I hoped that since I had to go another freethinker (i.e. a Humanist/Naturalist/Non-religionist etc.) could pick up where I left off in making my argument. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has a pamphlet on freethought that reads:
free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. Source: http://ffrf.org/nontracts/freethinker.php
The term freethinker is defined in an online dictionary as:
“somebody who does not accept dogma: an independent thinker who refuses to accept established views or teachings, especially on religion.”
In another dictionary it says:
Freethinker \Free"think`er\, n. One who speculates or forms opinions independently of the authority of others; esp., in the sphere or religion, one who forms opinions independently of the authority of revelation or of the church; an unbeliever; -- a term assumed by deists and skeptics in the eighteenth century. Source: http://dict.die.net/freethinker/
Tom and Rusty simply misunderstood what I meant. I request that they add this comment to the end of that blog in the spirit of fairness.
They have just ignored it so far.
When I was an active LDS member I don't remember being like that. Maybe I've forgotten the mindset?
As of 2/12/07 they deleted my message from their thread. So I re-posted the following message on the newest thread on their site:
Hey this is w.Kempton,
I just read the blog titled, Does Religion or Atheism Offer A Better Route To Unselfishness? By Rusty - February 6, 2007 (at http://www.nine-moons.com/2007/02/06/do ... mment-7238).
At the end I am called a "condescending jerk." So I went back to the blog to see what would cause such a response? Apparently my use of the term "freethinker" elicited this response. Jeff Ricks and I were making arguments for secular morality and when I had to leave my computer I made one final comment; after stating that I had to go and couldn’t continue explaining the possible evolutionary origins of altruism and how the Communist parties weren’t acting in the name of humanism, I said “…Hopefully another freethinker will join in on this blog and explain things further. I gotta go.” Some guy named Tom then responded:
“freethinker … Nonsense. What a condescending jerk.”
Then a guy named Rusty says:
“Yeah, it’s probably time to close comments on this one.”
They then closed the comment box so I couldn’t explain to them that I wasn’t being condescending at all! Since in the blog I was giving a secular perspective, and the terms humanist and naturalist were used a lot, I assumed they were aware of the term freethinker. Because in context, my final comment meant that I hoped that since I had to go another freethinker (i.e. a Humanist/Naturalist/Non-religionist etc.) could pick up where I left off in making my argument. The Freedom From Religion Foundation has a pamphlet on freethought that reads:
free-think-er n. A person who forms opinions about religion on the basis of reason, independently of tradition, authority, or established belief. Freethinkers include atheists, agnostics and rationalists. Source: http://ffrf.org/nontracts/freethinker.php
The term freethinker is defined in an online dictionary as:
“somebody who does not accept dogma: an independent thinker who refuses to accept established views or teachings, especially on religion.”
In another dictionary it says:
Freethinker \Free"think`er\, n. One who speculates or forms opinions independently of the authority of others; esp., in the sphere or religion, one who forms opinions independently of the authority of revelation or of the church; an unbeliever; -- a term assumed by deists and skeptics in the eighteenth century. Source: http://dict.die.net/freethinker/
Tom and Rusty simply misunderstood what I meant. I request that they add this comment to the end of that blog in the spirit of fairness.