I’m glad there are many who enjoyed the vid, my devout mormon family thought it was very funny and accepted it as the tounge in cheek production we intended it to be.

Signed,
The coolest moon of Uranus (YARRRR!)

ETERNAL VIGILANCE
For squirrels, both dead and alive, it is the price of keeping the flies out.

“If the aim is to get people to think critically then you get more flies with honey than vinegar.”

And you can get even more with a dead squirrel.

No, you’re not a killjoy. In fact, I find it quite courageous of you to point that out. The arrogance you pointed out, personally, I have learned to take such things for granted. This is because Americans are for the most part frank people. It is one of their enviable assets (something worth emulating in good amounts); but also a liability when it turns into hubris.

And yes, I’m aware that you yourself might be an American.

I guess I get antsy when people move beyond the realm of discussing and even ridiculing ideas to ridiculing people.

If the aim is to get people to think critically then you get more flies with honey than vinegar.

Else it does smack of arrogance because it becomes “Look at those idiots” rather than “I disagree with this idea / policy / belief… because of the following reasons.”

Again, I know I’m being a killjoy here, and I did laugh at the video, but there is an aspect to the skeptical community that I think needs to be addressed.

it smacks a little bit of kids trying to make fun of something they know only a bit about

Because there is so much to know about the difference between Santa, the Tooth Fairy and various gods.

…, um, well, not really. WYFSIWYFG in parodies. Always have been, always will be, least common denominator and all.

And, what would be hiding beneath the improbable and lackluster surface of gods? Illuminati?

“we have the truth and you’re an ijit not to see it”

Truth and facts are very different in nature, and one is well served by trying to learn that fact.

For starters, truth systems differs so are relative to some formalism (say Euclidian geometry vs hyperbolic, or predicate logic vs intuitionistic logic) or ideology, what one has as true another can have as false (say only one parallel line through a disjointed point vs possibly several).

While facts are shared by all local observers. And so one would indeed be an ijit to reject them, which skeptics are well aware of.

But being aware of the facts isn’t the same as trying to imply that not knowing or understanding facts makes another an idiot. This is something I believe skeptics are mostly aware of and avoids. But unfortunately this difference can be dismissed as arrogance by those who meets empirical descriptions and for some unreason or other would like to reject them.

There’s an element of juvenalia here that is disconcerting. I’m not trying to be a killjoy, but while there is a lot to mock in the evangelistic world, this just misses the mark. I don’t know how best to typify it other than to say it smacks a little bit of kids trying to make fun of something they know only a bit about. I’ll just leave it at that.

The other “icky” factor here is that there is at times an element of evangelical fervour on the part of skeptics that can approach the irritation-inducing “in-yer-face” aspect of the door to door god salespeople. (The “we have the truth and you’re an ijit not to see it” attitude that at the extreme can become overbearing arrogance).

Not that I’ve seen it on this site, but it’s there. Heck, even calling it the church of “Plaitanism” feeds some of Phil’s detractors who see skeptics as being cultish.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m a recovering religionist and consider myself a skeptic, and I do see the intent of the attempt at humour here, but it just
doesn’t resonate with me.

Not all jokes have to – that’s the joy and pain of humour I guess.

J/P=?

I use a 17-inch dob, a 16-inch SCT, and a 14-inch SCT on a Paramount. Do I qualify as a true Plaitanist?

By the specs of your equipment, yes, I’d say you qualify. However, you still have to undergo the Plaitanistic ritual of Haleakala, a trial by orgy fire, in order to verify your ‘scope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYxu_MQSTTY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wTqsV3q7rRU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHbYTm8U1v8

Edited to add: Truly devoted followers leave copies of BA and DftS in hotel rooms.

Our Phil, who art in Boulder,
Hallowed be Thy Blog,
Thy Truthiness be Preached,
Thy Bidding be Done
In earth as it is in Boulder
Give us this day our daily Blog
And forgive us our trolling
as we forgive them that troll against us.
And lead us not into pseudoscience;
but deliver us from Jenny, RCH, and Moon Hoaxers.
[For thine is the blog, the truth, and the reality]

Amen

BAD MA, I keep thinking you are Phil’s Mom!

to be continued….

J/P=?

glad you enjoyed it Phil

I use a 17-inch dob, a 16-inch SCT, and a 14-inch SCT on a Paramount. Do I qualify as a true Plaitanist?

Now what the Holy Hallmonitor does it actually mean???

(And yes, I know I can look it up – and I did. There Is No God But Google, And Wikipedia Is Her Prophet. Sorry, Phil, you’re out!)