The two reply rule.

I've got a set of informal rules that I use web forums and such:

1. Only post two replies or comments on any thread
2. Never explain the same thing twice, i.e. don't expand or walk through your previous post, it's much better just to post something like, "Are you thick?"
3. Let the other guy have the last word.

Never the less I do occasionally break those rules, I think I've done it probably twice in the last year. Once on the subject of Special Relativity, which doesn't count really because I was being inquisitive rather than expounding my own opinion. The other occasion concerned the perennial pimple on the arse of Youtube i.e. the atheist v. god botherer slug-fest.

I remember my first encounter with Pat Condell's Youtube channel, I was left scratching my head and my jaw on the floor. It was a video proffering the idea of banning people from wearing burkas. I rather naivly posted something like, "Just let folk wear what they want, within reason, don't let 'em into banks or anything stupid like that." It took me a little while to adjust my input filter to Pat's rather rhetorical style but once I started to listen to him I began to realize that even though I like to consider myself inured to the tar brush of political correctness, even I had been projecting preconceptions upon him. I began to find him interesting even if there's very little common ground between us and appreciate his PC free oasis. So began my initiation to the world of YT's religious debate.

It wasn't long after I'd subscribed to him that I started to get, strange looking recommended for you videos, friend invites and video referrals on the subject. Naively again, I entered into the debate but quickly found my facetious manner to be not just unappreciated but saw it provoke some rather bizarre hostility. Being English, it was something of a culture shock to find the issue so contentious, the only occasion I'd encountered such fervor on the subject was when an acquaintance of mine started to argue over my religious affiliation. He kept telling me I was an atheist, an assertion to which I countered in a rather bemused fashion with the fact that I'm a Roman Catholic.

So a month or so ago I encounter this video where a guy is debunking some god botherer, Ray Comfort, I think but don't take my word for that, the subject of contention being Noah's Ark. So Ray or whoever come up with some specious rationalization as proof of the diluvian catastrophe and this guy is countering it with science and maths, well just basic arithmetic actually. Now most people here have gathered enough congnitive function by the time they're about eight years old to work out the veracity of the account of Noah, his Ark and the Flood, is questionable. So when I saw the nodding dog comments on this guy's video I kinda couldn't resist the urge to say something like, "Arguing about the flood is stupid you know." The point I was trying to communicate being that everyone with a full set of marbles can work out every thing in this guy's video for themselves and the only reason not to do so is as either an act of faith or some kind of self delusion. It's impossible to argue against such rationally because they have no rational foundation. What came next I have to admit I was unprepared for, he employed two devices that should be anathema to any self respecting atheist, the Matyr Defence and an appeal to faith.

I should quote his Matyr Defence but I can't be bothered looking it up at the moment so I'm going to paraphrase, it went something like this, "I refused to be intimidated into silence..." yeah you get the idea. It was his appeal to faith that really raised my hackles though, he wrote something like, "If I can can just convince a single person of the truth..." I cannot convey the feelings of contempt that aroused when I read his reply. "There is no continuity between intention and consequence" I replied, trying to convey my sense of irony at the fact that he, an atheist was employing his faith in benign intent would ensure a positive outcome. That's an act of prayer in my estimation.