virus: Kids, don't try this at home!
David McFadzean (dbm@merak.com)
Fri, 08 Sep 1995 16:14:24 -0600
For the past month I have been engaged in a very frustrating conversation/
argument with a Christian fundamentalist named Jeremiah Fern. I'm sure some
of you who have already encountered Mr. Fern are shaking their heads sadly
right now. The upshot is that despite a lot of discourse there was apparently
very little communication going on. The main lesson I take away from this
is that you can't argue with someone working from different axioms. I guess
I was hoping to trip up Mr. Fern on an inconsistency. In fact I did several
times, but to no avail since he didn't seem to have any problem with
inconsistencies. (Perhaps avoiding inconsistencies should be a Virus Maxim?)
Despite all the frustrations, I still found it to be a useful exercise
to express and defend my own beliefs. However, if you have the urge to invite
a fundamentalist onto this list I encourage you to first read the archives
of my discussion with Mr.Fern. I think you will agree that generally, it is
not worth the effort. For your illucidation and edification a hypermail
archive of the discussion can be found at "http://www.lucifer.com/virus/fern".
--
David McFadzean dbm@merak.com
Memetic Engineer http://www.merak.com/~dbm/
Merak Projects Ltd.