I take that as a compliment. ;)
I am curiously interested about the reception my little writing has received. I think it's some stretch to say that this entire site has become a "cult recruitment" place, considering my out-spoken spiritual influence is currently only restricted to the "Ask Bisqwit" thread on the off-topic forum and to my userpage at the site. Neither of which really are places of any weight on the site's official policy and coordination.
I admit I intentionally wrote the article in a bit provocative manner. But we've got enough adaptive, flirtative and tolerance talk in today's world. Bad kind of humanism. The kind of humanism that paralyzes people from making decisions, or rushes them into making bad decisions, prevents from seeing the big picture, and lulls them into false security. I wrote frankly and without sugar coating to make the contrast of spiritual reality and the material world absolutely stark. And I have no intention of compromising that stature. I am not worried about the possible misinterpretation of statistics and other problems pointed by people in this thread. It is hardly relevant. This does not mean ignoring of evidence; it simply means irrelevance. I did not claim causation, only correlation, and whether there is causation, does not change the truth value of the leading theme. The article has an overall message, and some will receive it upon reading it, most will not, regardless how many times and ways it is told to them.
Kuwaga, sorry about the suspense ― it's not anything you can really guess unless by coincidence, but I couldn't keep that inside, so I posted that much. It is something that made reading the recent posts so much more fun.
But yes, speaking of life is an appropriate manner in more ways than one. I'll write more about that once things stabilise a bit.
Re: Brainwashing ― yes, I suppose it's not entirely wrong to say that, considering a change definitely happened. But brainwashing can not make people do or think something that they vehemently object to. These things have always been in concordance with my way of thinking, or I have been indifferent about them; I just got a robust push forwards that I had been waiting for, err, 10 years or so. It did not happen by people tempting or by any of the means indicated in e.g. [1].
Incidentally, it does not seem like I got a chance to refute the claims regarding "critical thinking" in this particular post of mine, but. Maybe next time. Ask better questions. :)
Despite the choice of words, it actually was. It takes dedication to be that immobile on a subject.
That isn't necessarily saying it's a good thing, however.
I've personally lost all interest and desire for religion, outside of my own belief (which is more or less Apatheism). I just dislike seeing people, especially friends, turn to it as a sudden life-changing mechanic because I have not seen very much good come out of it from anybody involved.
Your milage may vary, but since you won't exactly be around much (after all, any time spent here is time away from "God") it will be difficult if not impossible to tell.
This is why every person and every nation should bless Israel. Just recently, on the very same day an anti-Israel political party was formed in France (or so I hear), an Air-France airplane was violently torn apart in a storm in flight across the Atlantic. And almost every calamity that has recently stricken America has occurred within a short time from a decision made by the government to betray Israel.
Bisqwit wrote:
I did not claim causation, only correlation
I noticed that too. People have that stereotype in their mind that religious people often claim causation of such events, and hence that paragraph of yours was interpreted in that way. I've found that interesting.
On the other hand, you [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gricean_maxims]flouted the maxim of relevance[/URL]. In the first sentence you claim that every nation should bless Israel. The following ones aren't really connected to that claim, but we assume you used them to explain why because we assume them to be relevant. So I'd say your writing style encouraged that kind of interpretation.
On the other hand, you [URL=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gricean_maxims]flouted the maxim of relevance[/URL]. In the first sentence you claim that every nation should bless Israel. The following ones aren't really connected to that claim
Yes, they are. I quoted God's promise to the nation of Israel, and then provided a few examples of the promise possibly being in action. I did not claim that any or all of those are due to the inheritable blessing God gave to Israel, but I do suggest the possibility. There is a difference between a claim and a suggestion. That's how science works too, right? Facts versus theories. Depending on the point of view, you can practically talk about something as a fact, but if the discussion gets too nitpicky, you can always back off to acknowledging that it's actually just a theory. Causation versus correlation.
And if someone thinks that this post is just fancy word play to avoid the accusation of claiming causation... tell me, in general, which words should one use in order to speak of correlation without implying causation? I remind again that I intentionally wrote the article in a straight-to-the-point tone without decorative diplomatic all-ends-covered lawyer language.
But we've got enough adaptive, flirtative and tolerance talk in today's world. Bad kind of humanism. The kind of humanism that paralyzes people from making decisions, or rushes them into making bad decisions, prevents from seeing the big picture, and lulls them into false security.
The following ones aren't really connected to that claim
Bisqwit wrote:
Yes, they are.
Sorry, what I meant was they aren't connected visibly by a cohesive devise, but only on the level of meaning. But the reader has to fill a certain gap to make sense of it. That's basically how flouting of the Gricean maxims works. You didn't explicitly state that there was a causal relationship, but I'd argue most people would interpret the text in a way that you indeed think the relationship was causal.
Because you make the reader think "Why is he telling me this?". I guess you intended them to form their own conclusions about that correlation, but it seems - as indicated by their statements in this thread - lots of people (not including me btw) only thought to themselves that you really have to be a fanatic freak.
I'll give a more illustrative example:
"I ate an apple yesterday and today I've got diarreah."
People are going to ask themselves why the apple is relevant in that sentence. They'll come to the conclusion that I think it's the cause for my diarreah.
I think your text has a similar effect on the reader.
Bisqwit wrote:
And if someone thinks that this post is just fancy word play to avoid the accusation of claiming causation... tell me, in general, which words should one use in order to speak of correlation without implying causation?
That's indeed difficult to accomplish without giving an explicit hint, I guess. I understand how you don't want to get defensive in a text like that though.
"Events like these make people (maybe including myself) all over the world wonder (or other verb)..."
Something like this would maybe work. It also doesn't use lawyer language. I'm sorry I couldn't come up with something better than this.
I've just watched quietly, but I figure I should at least leave a message before you leave.
I thank you so much for having made this website, and the community that came and helped make it what it is now. You've done a lot, and we're sad to see you go, but it's all up to you. Do come visit every now and then!
Wish you well on your future endeavours! ^^
Edit: *slaps forehead* ASK Thread! Argh! So, what will you do in particular, since you've made it clear it is religion-driven?
So, what will you do in particular, since you've made it clear it is religion-driven?
I can't easily think of anything to answer that I did not write in that article. I pretty much described my plans there. Where those plans take me, that depends on YHWH. Let's say I'm coming to take His word at face value, and I am pursuing after events and actions not unlike those described in the book of Acts. But if you'll go and ask me verse by verse whether something in particular is what I mean, all I can say is "possibly". It's not a do-A-B-C-then-D handbook. It all depends on YHWH. I've found that He has humor and imagination beyond our expectations, and that no two fates are the same. Only one thing I think I know: I will be teaching. Where, when, about what exactly, not sure. :P
There is no human who is deciding these things for me. I'm not operating under the discipline of any particular church, nor do I have a particular teacher whose teachings I am following. I am learning things from others, yes, but I teach them as much as they teach me, and I am not depending on anyone's whim. Yeshua is my lord, and only him I am following, as difficult as it is for anyone to believe. How could you, when you don't believe that he even exists. It's a ridiculous thought, you know it, and you reject it. Yet, it is very much true. Not through fandom-like imitation, but through guided relationship.
The mundane life will change a bit too ― maybe towards a bit less nerdy direction. But its aspects are still open, too.
Weird, all this coming from a person whose favourite latin expression, describing his personal attribute, used to be "status quo" ― I resisted change and preferred things to stay just like they are, for I'm financially stable with some backup, I have things I like to do, and I get days after days to pass without boredom, and I had no craving for new experiences, new places to go, new food to taste, better salary or new people to meet. Status quo. Most people in today's world are the polar opposite of that.
And now? Well, I've already known for a long time that "status quo" is utopia. The world changes around us. People we know die. Accidents happen. New companies appear and others go broke. We get older and we aren't always healthy. I'm now more aware than ever, that the current state of world, globally and in my personal sphere of influence, is unsustainable. I must change and adapt to those changes. And as a part of those changes, times will come when there will be a binary threshold that separates true believers from others. Choosing the side will require a change in the way of life, for which one must be ready. I have been a lone person with a few if any friends, and been quite fine with that, but I'm realizing that I do need other people. That includes also a girlfriend, or to-be wife. If I don't need that now, I will, later. So to sum it up, a change is bound to happen. And it is happening now.
"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself.
It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the
kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional
functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success."
- Onkar Ghate
Bisqwit wrote:
Will you change your forum rank? If so, what will it be?
Will Bisqbot stay at the site?
Does the usage of ROMs to make a TAS go well with the commandment "You shall not steal."?
Either way, drop by once in a while to let us know what's going on. I'm sure many are interested. I can't imagine you not being interested in changes or new TASes at the the site as well.
①Will you change your forum rank? If so, what will it be?
②Will Bisqbot stay at the site?
③Does the usage of ROMs to make a TAS go well with the commandment "You shall not steal."?
1) I considered this question earlier today. For now, I'll let it stay, because I can't see any of the other choices being particularly good. Coincidentally, I granted Nach and Adelikat the Site manager rank for obvious reasons.
2) BisqBot is still a valuable tool pack for me, so I'll keep it in IRC. Having it on #nesvideos shouldn't be a problem unless people complain about it.
3) In my opinion, it does. I agree with this picture, though I admit that there are some areas where reasons against piracy are stronger.
As for NesVideoAgent's post announcing features, I am inclined to think that someone should take ownership of that aspect and arrange that themselves. It is difficult to achieve with the site and the bot being on different servers; the site logs messages into a static file and the bot polls that file and just echoes whatever is written to that file. Could Nach possibly do it? It should be done at the same time when the site is moved.
Joined: 2/28/2006
Posts: 2275
Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil
Arrr, me am a pirate, Me want a pirate title, damn Aye.
"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself.
It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the
kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional
functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success."
- Onkar Ghate
Bisqwit wrote:
I can't easily think of anything to answer that I did not write in that article. I pretty much described my plans there. Where those plans take me, that depends on YHWH... lots of other words, with lots of other YHWH.
I have never heard the name YHWH before, but when I sound it out in my head it sounds like "Yhouh" or an H heavy "You." It is interesting that everything depends on YHWH, because change also depends on you. You have to make the changes.
What is your opinion Bisqwit? Perhaps "Yhouh" are the God of your own actions.
adelikat wrote:
I very much agree with this post.
Bobmario511 wrote:
Forget party hats, Christmas tree hats all the way man.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahweh
I prefer to use the actual name of God to speak of the God of Israel, and I believe that this is not a violation of second commandment.
Sticky wrote:
It is interesting that everything depends on YHWH, because change also depends on you. You have to make the changes.
What is your opinion Bisqwit?
In a way, it is indeed paradoxical. To be saved from a hole in ice when you have no means to get out from there yourself, you need to let yourself to be pulled out from it, but it is still not you that saves yourself.
YHWH's guidance comes from in many ways ― mostly in the form of changed circumstances. An entire book could be written about the about this, and I believe that there are thousands of christian books that already cover the subject collectively. Because the means are so diverse, the only way to cover it is through countless anecdotes. I doubt it would do much good for me to provide such anecdotes here. To sum it up in an abstract manner, it works like this: you try to see a way, but you find that a wall of endless obstacles has been elected in front of you. You pray, and eventually, you'll discover that obstacles have been dealt with and a clear path has been opened for you. It is still up to you to walk through the path.
And sometimes the way the obstacles have been dealt with is so funny that you can't help but praise YHWH for his taste of humor.
Take David Wilkerson's experiences in his book The Cross and the Switchblade for example. Read it and see how he got to befriend the teen gang members the first time.
Joined: 2/28/2006
Posts: 2275
Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil
"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself.
It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the
kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional
functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success."
- Onkar Ghate
Bisqwit wrote:
Nonsense aside, it does not seem like there is a "Life Changing International Ministries" church in the address indicated on that poster. I call it hoax, or a strawman. There is no information about that person either, no hits aside from dozens after dozens of people thinking themselves intelligent laughing at the strawman presented.
They say, the best lie is the one that is plausible. There are examples of all those claims… well, maybe except for the "ex transsexual", but none that I know in a single person.
Joined: 2/28/2006
Posts: 2275
Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil
"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself.
It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the
kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional
functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success."
- Onkar Ghate
Bisqwit wrote:
Joined: 2/28/2006
Posts: 2275
Location: Milky Way -> Earth -> Brazil
"Genuine self-esteem, however, consists not of causeless feelings, but of certain knowledge about yourself.
It rests on the conviction that you — by your choices, effort and actions — have made yourself into the
kind of person able to deal with reality. It is the conviction — based on the evidence of your own volitional
functioning — that you are fundamentally able to succeed in life and, therefore, are deserving of that success."
- Onkar Ghate
Bisqwit wrote:
[23 miles off the coast of Gaza, 15:30pm] - Today Israeli Occupation Forces attacked and boarded the Free Gaza Movement boat, the SPIRIT OF HUMANITY, abducting 21 human rights workers from 11 countries, including Noble laureate Mairead Maguire and former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (see below for a complete list of passengers). The passengers and crew are being forcibly dragged toward Israel.
"This is an outrageous violation of international law against us. Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip," said Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. Congresswoman and presidential candidate. "President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that's exactly what we tried to do. We're asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey."
According to an International Committee of the Red Cross report released yesterday, the Palestinians living in Gaza are "trapped in despair." Thousands of Gazans whose homes were destroyed earlier during Israel's December/January massacre are still without shelter despite pledges of almost $4.5 billion in aid, because Israel refuses to allow cement and other building material into the Gaza Strip. The report also notes that hospitals are struggling to meet the needs of their patients due to Israel's disruption of medical supplies.
"The aid we were carrying is a symbol of hope for the people of Gaza, hope that the sea route would open for them, and they would be able to transport their own materials to begin to reconstruct the schools, hospitals and thousands of homes destroyed during the onslaught of "Cast Lead". Our mission is a gesture to the people of Gaza that we stand by them and that they are not alone" said fellow passenger Mairead Maguire, winner of a Noble Peace Prize for her work in Northern Ireland.
Just before being kidnapped by Israel, Huwaida Arraf, Free Gaza Movement chairperson and delegation co-coordinator on this voyage, stated that: "No one could possibly believe that our small boat constitutes any sort of threat to Israel. We carry medical and reconstruction supplies, and children's toys. Our passengers include a Nobel peace prize laureate and a former U.S. congressperson. Our boat was searched and received a security clearance by Cypriot Port Authorities before we departed, and at no time did we ever approach Israeli waters."
Arraf continued, "Israel's deliberate and premeditated attack on our unarmed boat is a clear violation of international law and we demand our immediate and unconditional release."
While I have no qualms with the existence of Israel as a state, I am worried with the way that its land has been gathered and the way it acts to the former owners of that land, the Palestinians.
What I'm worried about is the world thinking that terrorism by the Palestinians is somehow justified. Regardless of what the reason for terrorist acts may be, it's never justifiable.
I'm also worried that even though it's a well-known and well-published fact that Palestinians teach antisemitism and hatred to their small children, the world mainly ignores it. Nobody shows concern nor reproach.
Also the world is not in the least worried about antisemitism in general, not by Palestinians or by anyone else. Heck, even some elected politicians in some western countries show open antisemitism with impunity.
