Your First Ever EVC Post

Goodness. Mine is here.

A moderate-length post about how irrational faith is...and how I was perfectly happy to be irrational. The whole thing was just dripping with cognitive dissonance - you could very easily tell that I didn't really believe in God, I simply believed that it was good to believe in God.

A lot can change in five years.

Rahvin writes: A lot can change in five years.

Indeed. I don't recall ever reading any of your pre-atheitised posts before. Interesting.

Always one to kick a man when he is down....So while you remain suspended and unable to reply.....

Oni writes: I have only received 2....

3..........And counting.

Oni writes: and banned from the Big Bang/Cosmology thread once

I looked this up. Banned from a whole forum!!! Way to go. But glad to see you got that revoked. The whole physics thing is where I first encountered you here and is where I figure your "passion" lies. Electric halos aside.

Oni writes: I almost had a first recently; being suspended for not being upto the comedic standards of a pro.

It's a good job most of us aren't subject to that rule.

Oni writes: And I would have gladly accepted that one, having shat the bed with jokes in that post.

Your spat with Rrhain has it's moments of amusingness but I suspect it is in danger of becoming as tedious as mine and RAZD's thang was a while ago.

My first suspension was for a deliberate, flagrant, enraged, over-the-top rant--and certainly merited.

I asked for it and got it--two days after my birthday, on 9/4/2005.

It was also a dark classic, IMHO.

AdminBen writes: Omnivorous suspended indefinitely -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I'm not going to bother linking Omnivorous' post. Omnivirous needs to petition to Admin via email to explain himself/herself and why s/he should be allowed back in here. For the moment, I'm not of the mind right now what level of suspension is appropriate. Only that Omnivorous' thought process and behavior have no place here.

I had better friends than I deserved among the admins:

AdminBen writes: Omnivorous' permissions restored -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome back, Omnivorous! First, I'd like to emphasize that personal attacks on other posts, especially done in a premeditated fashion, is not something that is going to be treated lightly. Second, I'd like to make sure everybody understands that those who know better (as well as those who should know better) will always be judged more harshly than those who are less experienced and do not know better. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, with that said, watching quality poster after quality poster get suspended is not what we want to see here. The admins as a group have seen that interaction with some posters has consistently been difficult and has consistently led to behavior resulting in suspensions, and we find this to be a real problem.

Here's what I did:

Omni writes: Faith, you ignorant slut. I won't quote you, because I don't want the pond scum on my fingers. You nasty, moronic, snake-headed cow. Our local papers are also printing "Sodom and New Orleans" letters: what a swell bunch you Xians are! Pat Robertson blamed gays and gay-tolerant Americans for 9/11: did you sign up for that, too, Faith? God will slaughter the innocent until Americans crack down on the sinners? You idiot maggot-brain, you foul, hate-spewing freak. Are you really so simple-minded and bile-hearted to believe that bad things only happen to bad people, all by the will of God? Even your own Bible contradicts that notion, you hateful, self-righteous, santimonious, morally loathsome bitch. Go re-read the Book of Job: feature yourself as one of his ninny neighbors. I hope you face judgment by exactly the God you claim to worship; you should hope and pray you do not. Faith, your name is contagion. Jar, boot me out of here, the air is foul.

Whew!

AdminBen beat him to the punch.

Faith had provoked that with:

Faith writes: As long as the attitude continues to prevail in this country that disaster is a matter of statistics and nothing out of the ordinary, as long as God is ignored or reviled or considered to be remote from these "ordinary" disasters, they will only get worse.

I lost friends in New Orleans; I lost family members just prior to my most recent, long-term suspension a couple of years ago, when I erupted over what I saw as unfair treatment of someone I considered a friend. In both cases, I was emotionally wracked and using prescription narcotics in the wake of surgery. I've had more surgeries and narcotics since and will have more soon: I no longer go online in that state; the disinhibition is too powerful.

Unfortunately, in the latter event, I was an admin, and instead of acting to calm things down as I had committed to do, I poured gasoline on the fire with intemperate posts.

As a result, many good people who were more loyal (and perhaps more riled up by my flights of rheotoric) than they should have been were also suspended. Some of them, like me, have recently returned; others have not--I wish they would. I am trying to find them.

The posts that led to their suspensions are the only words I've ever posted here that I would pay dearly to take back.

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Have you ever been to an American wedding? Where's the vodka? Where's the marinated herring?!
-Gogol Bordello

Hi, Omnivorous.

Omnivorous writes: I asked for it and got it--two days after my birthday, on 9/4/2005.

That sounds like a subtle hint for somebody to mention you on the Birthday Thread.

Happy Birthday!

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)

Darwin loves you.

Bluejay writes: That sounds like a subtle hint for somebody to mention you on the Birthday Thread. Happy Birthday!

You have a subtle and discerning mind...

...though it was the birthday that made me put both stories in coherent form. I thought some of the "young" posters might be curious about this flood of freezers (freaky+geezers, not my invention)...

Thanks. Life is good.

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Have you ever been to an American wedding? Where's the vodka? Where's the marinated herring?!
-Gogol Bordello

{**Straggler talks to camera in best sports com voice with mic in hand**)

So jar how does it feel to be the odds on favourite to be the first EvC member to reach 20,000 posts?

Are you excited by this landmark?

Or is it all just part of your dedicated lifestyle?

Hi, Omnivorous.

I first began reading in January 2008, and first began posting in February 2008. So, I was at the beginning of the first generation at EvC without the "old school."

But I briefly overlapped with the Great Extinction, so, I had participated on threads with the likes of Jar, Nator, Trixie, Quetzal, Ringo, you, etc., before the forum entered its Cenozoic Era.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)

Darwin loves you.

Quetzal was inimitable; Trixie a delight: both of them sweethearts with steel-trap minds.

I remember your arrival. I was impressed--still am.

As I approach wrapping up my sixth decade, it is clarity of mind and generosity of heart that matter most, both in what I aspire to and who I want around me. That, good blood pressure and a quiet prostate

I suppose it's no coincidence that the evolutionist-camp contains the better educated, more articulate posters. It no longer surprises me that the creationists, by and large, are less caring and compassionate than their supposedly more clinically detached opponents, but it still seems remarkable.

And Evc is still the best forum for folks accustomed to being the smartest person in the room to gain a little humility--or at least good company.

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Have you ever been to an American wedding? Where's the vodka? Where's the marinated herring?!
-Gogol Bordello

And Evc is still the best forum for folks accustomed to being the smartest person in the room to gain a little humility--or at least good company.

Amen to that.

Pussy.

Yes, I am very powerful, thank you.

Always one to kick a man when he is down....So while you remain suspended and unable to reply.....

They let me out on good behaviour.

I looked this up. Banned from a whole forum!!! Way to go. But glad to see you got that revoked. The whole physics thing is where I first encountered you here and is where I figure your "passion" lies.

Yeah, I like that subject a bit too much for my own good. I think I know more than I do, until cave or son humble me and I retreat to a dark corner to cry in shame.

It's a good job most of us aren't subject to that rule.

I'll take it as a challenge!

Your spat with Rrhain has it's moments of amusingness but I suspect it is in danger of becoming as tedious as mine and RAZD's thang was a while ago.

Whenever you go after a heckler on stage, you run the risk of looking like a bully. At first, what you may be hitting them with could be hilarious, but after a while the crowd kinda takes their side instead of yours and it isn't as funny anymore.

I think I've enjoyed teasing that cigarette too much, but it's now running the risk of looking less and less amusing.

- Oni

onifre writes: I think I've enjoyed teasing that cigarette too much, but it's now running the risk of looking less and less amusing.

I thought you just wanted to compare him to an unpleasant old lady?

I thought you just wanted to compare him to an unpleasant old lady?

Or that

- Oni

Hi, Onifre.

onifre writes: Straggler writes: Always one to kick a man when he is down....So while you remain suspended and unable to reply..... They let me out on good behaviour.

In your case, it was relatively good behavior.

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-Bluejay (a.k.a. Mantis, Thylacosmilus)

Darwin loves you.