The boasts of atheists (Atheist self-deception)

I get your point, iano, but I wanted to ask you a question. Did you find the comment about "exemplary moral character" obnoxious?I want to know if I was the only one who did.Edited by robinrohan, : changed subtitle.

Also how is it self-praise, when you are uncomfortable with praise, and you are only repeating what others have literally said about you while giving them their due credit for saying such. I.e. my students praise me for their ability to learn while i am tutoring them. How is it a boast to say, xyz student feels that i am an excellent tutor?Or that xyz person feels that i set a high standard for integrity and professionalism? How is it boasting to repeat what others have said about you and give them due credit for what they have said?

I just meant it's not the sort of thing one talks about publicly.

That's not the case here.

I'm glad you brought that up. I consider this one of the biggest problems in the "business world."That demand for one to boast is a cancer.

I think I have seen some examples of boasting here. For example,

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Aslan is not a Tame Lion

In some cases it is false modesty. They say they are no better than the sinner and "there but for the grace of God...etc" but that in fact can reflect a condescending attitude.

You come across like the sort of guy who'd drop into to a party and feel morally superior to everyone else because he's depressed about his mortality whilst they're having fun! Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.Edited by RickJB, : No reason given.

what do you consider boasting in the business world?
something like "i am an excellent typist"?
i don't really think someone saying they are a good typist is bad if they can do 100 wps or morenor do i really think its boastful to say that you are person of exemplary morals, i think the word is a bit highbrow maybe but his point was to defend agenst the typical fundi arguement that athiests can't be moral without god, at least thats the most common point of saying you can be moral as an athiest.
if you find what he said obnoxious, well i;ll have to be blunt and say get over it, people can be moral outside the box and i wouldn't call making a statement boasting if its true

I remember expressing incredulity that anyone would say such a thing. My toes curl at the idea that there are people in the world who genuinely go around thinking this of themselves. It's just my view.I suppose that if morality is considered something that one can define for onesself and a person finds that they are living up to that standard then they are accurate in their statement (even if it does fall into the class of a boast). It is a ridiculous thing to call ones meeting of ones own standards "exemplary" however. I imagine the proper stance to take is one of slight embarrassment if pushed into commentingThe most attractive individuals are those who are modest and whose modesty is not false. False modestly contains all the obnoxiousness of boasting for it is the other side of the same coin and as detectable.Edited by iano, : No reason given.

What your students say of you may or may not be their actual view of you. They may be female and you male and you are very attractive - but they can't say that. You may be a lecturer who gives good exam hints and they want that to continue. You may not be demanding and they want to affirm your style due to needing the occasional easy lecturer to offset the workload of the more demanding ones.In other words they may not think you are a great lecturer in the sense that you are taking it up. No harm there. But you are not stating fact when you tell others that this is what they think of you for you do not actually know. "I have exemplary moral character" falls into the same zone. How does one know this?

All the cv guides tell you to use power words and phrases:"was instrumental in.."
"took full respsonsibility for.."
"fell well within my capabilities...."
"met the challenge successfully..."But even in there one would unlikely say "I am a man of exemplary moral character" - you might throw a few dollars at your reference letter writers to include such phrases if it really concerned you that much

No doubt. For the record: I, iano, am a filthy, manky, greasy, dirty sinner and were it not for his grace I would fully deserves to burn for all eternity in the fires of hell (although I think fire is only illustrative of the torment).Its hard to believe, isn't it.Edited by iano, : No reason given.

Well, the second and third ones were jokes, not meant seriously.

Not a statement about some specific skill. It's the more general things one has to say about oneself that I have found very uncomfortable and unnatural: comments about how energetic and resourceful one is, etc.Business prose is terrible prose for just this reason. One has to put in a bunch of high-sounding words all the time. You can't say anything plainly. You have to use a lot of Latinate terms like "facilitate" when what you meant was "help."