Pesharim

RULES: UPDATED AS OF 9/20/08

I have created a Blacklist of certain posting elements as follows, comments containing any of the following will be deleted. To voice any objection to these rules, comment here or email me at ornitheologist@gmail.com. Don’t be intimidated by any of these rules. Just post logically, speak your mind and use your sense of humor –as well as whatever manners come to mind at the moment– and you’ll never have to worry about your post getting deleted.  I really don’t care what you say as long as you make a worthwhile point.  And if you aren’t saying anything worthwhile, why are you posting???

In communication, in general, passion and apparent intelligence are inversely proportional.  Such that, the more you try to appear intelligent to other readers, the less passionate you will appear.  And the more passionate you seem, the less intelligent you appear.  The art of communication is in the synthesis of the two.

Many speakers and writers fail to convey their message because they attempt only to speak intelligently and nothing more.  Their point may be impeccably correct, well explained and researched, but they fail to connect to other readers simply because their writing trades passion for precision.  The best writing, however, compromises neither passion nor intelligence, but achieves them both with stunning elegance.

THE BLACKLIST

Goddidit – It may or may not be true but it doesn’t belong in a scientific discussion. The only possible exception to this rule are the matter of creation, or given intervention of the supernatural (i.e. “miracles”) because one cannot comment on these scientifically, it obviously becomes necessary to make an exception.

Namecalling – accomplishes nothing more than getting your post deleted.  Exception: Sometimes it’s necessary to call it like you see it.  If you feel the nature of the subject necessitates your being… blunt, then do so.  I encourage you to speak your mind; your post will not be deleted.  As a general rule, however, don’t post anything on this blog that you wouldn’t say to that person’s face in real life.

Cussing - Any post containing foul language will be EXPELLED. Period.

Duh – Go figure…

Wierdness – i.e. conspiracy theories: unless you want to back it up some science, don’t bother.

Trolling/Spamming – Please try to stick to the topic, if you have a question or comment that is not addressed by any post see my contact info above or find the nearest “open topic”.  Open Topics are posts that have no particular subject and will be designated as such.

A Couple Other Quick Notes:

Certain sites (such as Ray Comfort’s blog, “Atheist Central”) impose strict rules against posting URLs. Contrarily, I encourage commentors to post links to anything that will further a useful discussion. Often linking to articles can be extremely useful in presenting a clear and concise argument, while reducing the overall internet clutter generated by having the same thing said a thousand times over on any number of places on the internet.

Using Atheist Central as an example once again, notice that Ray Comfort’s blog lists as a guidline:

“Any comments we deem abusive or outside the boundaries of Christian civility will not be published.”

Pesharim was created to further the discussion between religous groups, different beliefs, or contrary scientific practices. You will find that anything posted on here need not be exclusively within Christian “boundaries”, whatever those are. Why should atheists even be expected to live by “Christian civility”. I find this a non-sequitir, and, perhaps, a somewhat hypocritical practice.

As a further and final note: yes, comment moderation is turned on. The only reason I can list for this is “just because”.   If commenting picks up to the degree at which I can no longer moderate all the posts in a viable way, then I’ll probably turn you loose. Tell me what you think on this one; your discussion is appreciated.