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According to theism, if a universe is to have any probability of existing, this probability is dependent upon God's beliefs, desires and creative acts. But the Hartle-Hawking probability is not dependent on any supernatural considerations; Hartle and Hawking do not sum over anything supernatural in their path integral derivation of the probability amplitude.
Quentin Smith, "Quantum Cosmology's Implication of Atheism" (http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/quentin_smith/quantum.html, 1997).
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Category: Weirdness
Posted on: November 8, 2009 9:09 PM, by PZ Myers
Gene Ray, of Timecube infamy, has a twitter account.
If he and Ashton Kutcher started following one another, that would be like crossing the streams. It would be bad.
By the way, he's not a very funny guy — more like a racist homophobe with an ego. Not a nice fellow at all.
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The Island of Doubt 11.23.2009
The Frontal Cortex 11.22.2009
Gene Expression 11.23.2009
A Blog Around the Clock 11.21.2009
Guilty Planet 11.22.2009
Comments
Posted by: Janine The Ineffable, OM | November 8, 2009 9:16 PM
There are somethings I really do not ever need to know about. This is one of them.
Posted by: Sanity Jane | November 8, 2009 9:17 PM
You've got to admit - the guy can cram an awesome load of crazy into 140 characters.
Posted by: tildeb | November 8, 2009 9:26 PM
Crossing the streams? Man, I burst out laughing at that one! Thanks, PZ.
Posted by: Steve | November 8, 2009 9:33 PM
I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing PZ, what do you mean "bad?"
Posted by: intothewild | November 8, 2009 9:37 PM
As Janine said, I'm not sure this is something that I need to know about.
It's definitely racist and homophobic, but does anyone take him seriously? What's the history of this Timecube thing?
Posted by: 'Tis Himself
|
November 8, 2009 9:37 PM
I'll let Dr. Ray, THE WISEST HUMAN, explain why Professor Myers is dissing him:
Posted by: Lehooo | November 8, 2009 9:41 PM
Hey excellent! First time one of my email suggestions has been posted here! (Not that I've sent a lot of them before.)
Posted by: Aaron Baker | November 8, 2009 9:42 PM
Who? What? Why? Like the poster above, I would have preferred not knowing about this person.
You seem to collect lunatics the way other people collect stamps. Maybe you should switch to stamps.
Posted by: Paranoid Budgie | November 8, 2009 9:44 PM
This guy is an internet classic of crazy. He sets the standard for woo-tastic webpages in both design and content.
Posted by: Roadtripper | November 8, 2009 9:44 PM
One more reason not to bother with all this twitter brouhaha.
Rt
Posted by: Creature of the Universe | November 8, 2009 9:45 PM
his mind has died –
thoughts
rotting
leach
unintelligent.
Posted by: James | November 8, 2009 9:48 PM
I have truly never witnessed something this positively bizarre until now. The man must be an elaborate troll, or seriously mentally ill.
Posted by: Zeno
|
November 8, 2009 9:48 PM
"Crossing the streams." PZ, is that a reference to Ghostbusters or are you implying that Ashton and Gene could share toilet facilities?
Both frighten me.
Posted by: Benjamin Geiger | November 8, 2009 9:49 PM
intothewild:
There's a reason we use "timecube" as a unit of measure for internet crazy. Check out his website (timecube dot com, I don't want to link to it) to see why.
Posted by: applescraple | November 8, 2009 9:50 PM
Just another Republican
Posted by: Graham | November 8, 2009 9:54 PM
Wow. This guy takes crazy to a whole new level.
"YOUR ADULT IMAGE AS A DAMN GOD WHILE YOU BETRAY YOUR
PRIOR SONS AND DAUGHTERS WHO SACRIFICED THEIR LIFE SO YOU COULD LIVE AN EVIL LIE.
BIBLE GOD NEV$ER CREATED AV SINGLE DAY - NOT A SINGLE ROTATION - LEFT THE EARTH STANDING STILL. I CREATED 4
DAYS IN ON EARTH ROTATION.
EVERY HUMAN DESERVES DEATH FOR IGNORING SUCH A SUPERNATURAL TRANSCENDENTAL PRINCIPLE.
GREENWICH MEAN TIME IS WRONG AND EVIL, SO IS 3 DIMENSIONAL MATH. YOU CAN"T KILL ME, FOR I AM 82 + CANCER.
CHILDREN - STOP THE EVIL ADULTS BEFORE THEY DESTROY YOUR LIFE ON EARTH."
Dr. Gene Ray, Cube Phenomenologist and THE WISEST HUMAN
oray612959@earthlink.net
Posted by: Newfie
|
November 8, 2009 9:58 PM
Wow, it doesn't take more than a few seconds to scan that page and see the man is batshit crazy, will delusions of grandeur.
Video of him on Tech TV.
Posted by: TheLoneIguana | November 8, 2009 9:59 PM
He's like a darkside version of a Dr. Bronner's soap bottle.
Posted by: Marcus Ranum | November 8, 2009 10:00 PM
As I think others have pointed out, he's not much crazier than those mormons and their magic underwear, or the catholics and their zombie crackers, or the nation of islam and their mega kugelblitz, or the jews and the supreme being that enjoys occasional foreskins, or the buddhists and their oneness with everything, or the hindus and their many-armed blue avatars, or the scientologists and zenu, etc, etc. You can't use him as a unit of measurement because he probably fluctuates.
Oh, wait, we shouldn't make fun of these people. They all deserve compassion because they hold these dumbass beliefs and, uh, need sympathy.
Posted by: WashingMachine0 | November 8, 2009 10:00 PM
Wow, this guy is like all the racism from /b/ if it were taken seriously, and condensed into 140 character posts.
Posted by: NewEnglandBob | November 8, 2009 10:02 PM
The stupid must burn on him.
Posted by: intothewild | November 8, 2009 10:02 PM
LOL to the possible Ghostbusters reference.
I'm still wondering if this guy has any influence besides as a popular object of ridicule...?
Posted by: Sir Craig | November 8, 2009 10:03 PM
James:
On his website he states he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. Honestly, you'd never know it...
Posted by: Joshua Zelinsky
|
November 8, 2009 10:12 PM
Do we have confirmation that this is really Gene Ray? It certainly sounds like him but I don't see any link on Ray's website to this Twitter account. Fake celebrity accounts have been made before.
Posted by: Biology Blogger | November 8, 2009 10:17 PM
PZ, Before I follow Gene I need you to confirm these 2 things.
1. If I follow Gene, I will not have the FBI on my ass.
2. If I am on Gene's twitter in a library computer I won't see the old librarian slowly coming toward me with a folded paperback book ready to strike her prey.
Posted by: David Wiener | November 8, 2009 10:18 PM
Sir Craig@23 - I believe that is it in a nutshell. He's just plain nucking futs.
Posted by: delphi-ote
|
November 8, 2009 10:19 PM
POSSIBLE Ghostbusters reference?! What is wrong with you people? Apparently you missed, "It would be bad."
Dr. Peter Venkman: I'm fuzzy on the whole good/bad thing. What do you mean, "bad"?
Dr. Egon Spengler: Try to imagine all life as you know it stopping instantaneously and every molecule in your body exploding at the speed of light.
Dr Ray Stantz: Total protonic reversal.
Dr. Peter Venkman: Right. That's bad. Okay. All right. Important safety tip. Thanks, Egon.
Posted by: bruceo | November 8, 2009 10:21 PM
"Astronomical signs PROVE 100% that the ending of the
7-year tribulation period is at the end of 2015!
Therefore, the beginning of the 7-year
Tribulation period starts by FALL 2009!"
That PROVES that if it doesn't, then astronomical signs have no meaning. Will he learn from it?
Posted by: Muzz | November 8, 2009 10:24 PM
That's amazing. It's like twitter was made for him. "Here Gene, we took away all the pesky coding and uploading. Go nuts! ...er"
He may feel constrained by the few font options though.
Posted by: intothewild | November 8, 2009 10:31 PM
Ok then, delphi-ote, a DEFINITE Ghostbusters reference. Thanks for the quote.
Posted by: Acronym Jim | November 8, 2009 10:33 PM
So is this guy attempting the L. Ron Hubbard path to independent wealth? Pseudoscience + spirituality = $$$$$?
Posted by: TheBlackCat | November 8, 2009 10:35 PM
Timecube is the yardstick by which all other internet crazy is measured. It is one of those things everyone on the web should have at least heard of. It is used as a measurement unit (10 timecubes being equal in craziness as the original timecube site, 0 being normal).
Posted by: Acronym Jim | November 8, 2009 10:35 PM
P.S. Rhetorical Acronym Jim is being rhetorical..
Posted by: Zen DiMilo | November 8, 2009 10:49 PM
The guy freakin' "tweets"
And/or "twitters"--are those two
Different things? *shrug*
Anyway, TIME CUBE!
In the twittersphere, where it
Might, kind of, belong.
[Disclaimer: I learned
Everything I know 'bout
twitters and tweeting
From two sources: that's
PZ and Doonesbury. Me,
I can't be bothered.]
Posted by: Vitor B V Santos | November 8, 2009 10:54 PM
I really wish natural selection would eliminate this kind of moron...
Posted by: cm | November 8, 2009 10:58 PM
This is possibly a faked Twitter account, because it seems these are quotes off his old Time Cube site. He is, in addition to being a crank, a hateful person in many ways. But can we at least try to enjoy gems like?:
"JESUS RETURNS TO EARTH, I WILL PERSONALLY KILL THE BASTARD MYSELF."
Posted by: Valdyr | November 8, 2009 11:02 PM
Schizophrenia is... a hell of a disease.
Posted by: Islander | November 8, 2009 11:10 PM
I'm surprised the concerned folks from the Sonia/Sonja/Tanja threads haven't shown up yet...
Posted by: Malachi Constant | November 8, 2009 11:14 PM
I know you just posted about why we should argue against crazies, PZ, but I still don't really agree with, or understand your position.
If you watch Newfie's link above ( linked here ) I think it's pretty clear that he has an actual mental condition.
If he had any kind of following, like Jenny McCarthy or Ray Comfort I'd be all over attacking his position. If people were being harmed or scammed I'd also be all over mocking him and explaining why he's wrong.
But what is gained by making fun of someone who no one listens to, and who seems to actually have a real mental condition?
What's the difference between this and making fun of an autistic kid?
I'm an atheist and a skeptic and I just don't see what is gained by making fun of this guy. As far as I can tell he's mentally ill, he's spouting nonsense, and no one cares. Why mock him?
Posted by: Janine The Ineffable, OM | November 8, 2009 11:19 PM
Malachi Constant, if you are going to complain about this here, you need to go after all of the internet. One of the common jokes is to judge a website's insanity content by awarding it from scale of up to 1 timecubes.
Posted by: Malachi Constant | November 8, 2009 11:22 PM
I'm familiar with the timecube crap. My first internet account was a Unix login on a university system, dagnabbit.
Is it worth still mocking this guy on a public platform? He's a nut and no one is listening, why bother?
Posted by: Janine The Ineffable, OM | November 8, 2009 11:29 PM
I guess I must be lacking in empathy, I have no problem mocking an insane person when that insane person is pushing bad ideas.
Posted by: Trucker Doug | November 8, 2009 11:57 PM
I would pay to see the Timecube guy debate the creator of the Hybrid RPG. Hybrid (stylized HYBRID) is a role playing game created by "C" and maintained by Philippe Tromeur. The "game" is said to correctly model physical reality, and originated from a series of "disjointed" posts by the author on a Usenet board. Hybrid consists of over 500 different and non-sequential rules, many of them utilizing references to pop culture and politics, cross-references to other rules (existent or not) and even other completely different RPG's, equations with undefined variables, and other random content. The version numbering system is also non-sequential, version 0.21 is considered newer than 0.34. An RPGnet reviewer declared Hybrid to be "unmitigated nonsense", and the game is also ranked as the 2nd worst RPG on the site.
http://hybrid-rpg.blogspot.com/
Posted by: RamziD | November 9, 2009 12:13 AM
Stop making fun of the mentally disabled, PZ! Just stop it! Have you no soul?!?!
Posted by: Ravenred | November 9, 2009 12:20 AM
For a review of Gene's website, along several others of equally doubtful relation to reality, I highl recommend...
http://totl.net/Cult/
Posted by: Capital Dan
|
November 9, 2009 12:39 AM
Sorry. I only pick one tweeter to follow a week. If Gene Ray had only gotten to my attention sooner, I might have chosen to follow him. Instead, I decided to follow Big Ben.
Hey! I just realized. Big Ben is a four-faced clock. There are four sides. It's cubic.
I need a drink.
Posted by: False Prophet | November 9, 2009 12:39 AM
His Twitter account is following a couple of pro-gay marriage activists and some Christian preacher who ministers to American native peoples. Does that sound in line with the same Gene Ray of timecube.com, who keeps denouncing the queer God? I think this is a spoof. Is there a corollary of Poe referring to internet wackos in general?
Posted by: Jenn | November 9, 2009 12:48 AM
Ramzid: I wish PZ would answer your question about his soul. And while I get the discomfort about making fun of the unfortunate or mentally ill ( I was brought up to think being nice was more important than almost anything--also, I'm Canadian), this guy and the others like him spread mean hateful garbage, and the golden rule applies: they are asking to be treated as they treat others.
Posted by: Screechy Monkey | November 9, 2009 1:13 AM
OT, but John McWhorter (who gave that fawning interview of Michael Behe) is back on bloggingheads.tv. He discusses the Behe controversy in the first few minutes of his diavlogue with Glenn Loury. Although he acknowledges that he didn't have the technical knowledge to conduct a good interview with Behe, he still doesn't get it. He claims that anyone who reads Behe's book can't help but come away convinced that there is "more going on" than natural selection (and yes, I know technically that's correct, but I don't think McWhorter is talking about sexual selection or genetic drift), and he still wants to pat himself on the back for taking on a sacred cow. And no explanation (at least in the part I watched) of why he asked to have the thing pulled and why he thinks that's consistent with his "gosh, it's just free inquiry" attitude.
Posted by: Tammy | November 9, 2009 1:16 AM
If he and Ashton Kutcher started following one another, that would be like crossing the streams. It would be bad.
OMFG I spit diet dew all over the place! Add in Tom Cruise we'll have armageddon. Dogs and Cats living together...
Posted by: Ron Sullivan | November 9, 2009 1:17 AM
Trucker Doug, #43:Hybrid consists of over 500 different and non-sequential rules, ...
Virtual 43-man Squamish, then.
Posted by: Islander | November 9, 2009 1:20 AM
Jenn @48:
I'm fairly certain Ramzid was joking. If it makes you feel any better, I'll answer the question in a way I think PZ would: No, I have no soul, because there is no such thing.
Posted by: RamziD | November 9, 2009 1:44 AM
Jenn, I agree. My post was meant to be sarcastic.
Posted by: F
|
November 9, 2009 2:19 AM
I knew I'd regret not fully documenting how I finally managed to log in...
But if this additional sign of the apocalypse isn't enough for everyone, CERN has been warming things up.
Posted by: Harry | November 9, 2009 2:35 AM
So, we are all going to come to a sticky end except for the true believers. Where would we be without the moral guidance of the Bible and the God of love?
Posted by: John Morales | November 9, 2009 2:40 AM
#38→#39: just beautiful. :)
Time Cube is an internet phenomenon; canonical kookiness.
Posted by: equisetum | November 9, 2009 3:25 AM
"I will give $1,000.00 to any person who can
disprove 4 days in each earth rotation."
Well, I might try, if I could figure out what the fuck that means.
Posted by: Kobra | November 9, 2009 3:40 AM
@57:
Therefore, 4 days in each earth rotation!
Wait, that's creationist logic. Timecube guy doesn't even bother with logic, bad or otherwise.
Posted by: Kobra | November 9, 2009 3:48 AM
Apparently the "4 days in each earth rotation" insanity has to do with his goofy belief that each hemisphere rotates independently and there are 4 "days" from each 6-hour time period (midnight, dawn, noon, dusk) and somehow he makes this out to be a cube??
And he thinks -1 times -1 equals -1???
I can't make any sense out of this. The man clearly does not understand arithmetic.
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | November 9, 2009 4:07 AM
No. He literally can't think that far. See comment 23. He really believes his incoherent rant.
His website seems to be fairly constant.
ARE YOU AN EVIL EDUCATOR!?!
One Tc is equal in craziness to www.timecube.com. And the scale is logarithmic – 1 Tc is ten times as insane as 0.9 Tc.
Posted by: Kagato
|
November 9, 2009 4:12 AM
He understands arithmetic perfectly. He is the wisest human, after all.
You, however, don't understand arithmetic, because you are EDUCATED STUPID.
Posted by: Kobra | November 9, 2009 4:19 AM
WIS is not INT
Posted by: Holydust | November 9, 2009 5:36 AM
Kobra wins the thread!
Posted by: DominEditrix | November 9, 2009 7:32 AM
Aha! In addition to indulgences and the True Date of the Rapture™, I shall be offering Apocalypstick to the female members of the True Church of the True Date of the Rapture™.
I, by the way, definitely have a soul. Two, in fact, on the bottoms of my feet. So there, True Unbelievers™!
If the gibbering hordes want religion, let them start fearing the TDotR™! And sending me money, so I can live in a style to which I am not accustomed.
Posted by: Pascale | November 9, 2009 7:55 AM
And here I thought End Times were upon us because Nebraska beat Oklahoma.
Posted by: Ponder | November 9, 2009 8:03 AM
Heh. He sort of reminds me of a rather... odd gentleman called Ben Lloyd who lived in a village in Wiltshire, Great Bedwyn. Which, according to Ben was the town on Earth where Jesus Christ was educated and lay on a mystical line that ran from Bali to Finland, via the Wash (an inlet on the UK coastline) where all sins are cleansed. He was heavily into numerology, women gave birth parthenogenically and bore false witness against him, grammatical english was wrong and taught illegally and all lawyers were CRIMINALLY INSANE (always capitals). With him on the lawyers, but the rest...
I've got a collection of his letters. One is online and can be found here- http://www.acraew.org.uk/uploads/Wiltshire/BEDWYN%20COMMON%20-%20GREAT%20BEDWYN%20NO.CL.71.pdf
This one is pretty mild.
Posted by: Rev. BigDumbChimp | November 9, 2009 8:33 AM
I like the ring of that.
Posted by: gre | November 9, 2009 8:34 AM
Whew!
O.K. this guy is (I'm sorry to say) "Bat Shit crazy"!
Maybe someone should turn his "drip" up a little or maybe down depending on what he is taking!
Aren't people like this supposed to be monitored 24/7?
Peace!
Posted by: ellenjanuary | November 9, 2009 8:43 AM
No wai! Next stop, LHC. Man, did I have a rant for those people! The heck with puny little black holes. The real worry arises from the potential of the duplication of these ancient temperatures needed to observe the Higgs will actually destabilize the particle (or field) causing it to "forget" its boson attachment as mass, causing a system-wide crash; the unzipping of the universe, as it were... but don't worry, the odds of such are vanishingly small.
My biggest problem with the inanely religious is their lack of integrity. For all the sillyness, arrogance, and misdirection I have witnessed from the science-types; in general, a scientist has integrity. A scientist ain't going to lie about stupid shit; mostly because they get caught up in the joy of discovery and don't even realize how some of these concepts sound to the layman, but basically because lying ain't natural. The way I saw the - whatever it was - that has contributed to my embarrassment in being considered human for the past year, these guys had to go out and hire a PR firm to settle the sheep. How anyone of intelligence can honestly consider god and think the dusty old codger would want it any other way - that's beyond my understanding. We're an insignificant species on this remote outpost of an otherwise boring galaxy...
And we might just collapse the whole ball of wax - because we need to know - that's what it means to Homo Sapiens Sapiens. Chew on that, Darth!
I mean, really. Better chance the Sun is actually Helios, coming this way right now to fry my ass...
Timecube, however... well, we're a full-spectrum species; that's for sure. Personally, I have this fascination lately with feeding people into a wood-chipper head first; him, Dumbski, that whole crowd - grrrrr - but there's really no ill will. The problem, of course, is education - or lack thereof - and really, no one has the right to be a parent these days, they have the responsibility. There aught to be a frickin' law...
Posted by: Sastra
|
November 9, 2009 8:58 AM
Gene Ray is a well-known schizophrenic; I guess I do consider laughing at his stuff "fair game" -- he's well-known because he wants to be well-known. His rants are practically an art form in themselves: find beauty in the unexpected. As Noel Coward said when he met Liberace after one of his recitals, "What you do ... you do very well."
But, since he is actually mentally ill, and not just buying into common cultural irrationality, I'd still avoid dealing with him personally. For our sake, and his.
I realize that it's the way of madness to try to find any rational thread in Timecube Theory, but is this guy an atheist, or not? He seems to dabble in religion. Perhaps a theologian who has become bored with the same old, same old of his own theology can look into this, and come up with a way to reconcile the "apparent" contradictions, and harmonize it all. They've had practice with the Bible: now here's an even greater challenge. Try to make Timecube sound plausible, a "reasonable faith."
Fame and glory await!
Posted by: Luna_the_Cat | November 9, 2009 9:07 AM
Not only is he diagnosed schizophrenic, he refuses to take any meds for it. I think that puts him very firmly into the "please don't interact with him, for his sake and yours" category.
Posted by: intothewild | November 9, 2009 9:09 AM
Yes, he's well known, but his desire to be well-known is likely an element of his illness.
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | November 9, 2009 9:42 AM
?
It's his own truth. Compare the Soviet newspaper Komsomol'skaya Pravda.
Wrong. Specific and subspecific epithets belong in lowercase, and the whole thing belongs in italics: Homo sapiens sapiens.
Is he an autotheist…?
Posted by: Bill Dauphin, OM | November 9, 2009 10:06 AM
'Tis (@6):
Well, I was right with the good Dr. Ray, but your quotation killed all that: Nobody who was really the Wisest Human™ could fail to realize that bullshit is one word! So is dumbass... dumbass!
Posted by: AJ Milne | November 9, 2009 10:08 AM
Cafe Press button idea: 'I am an evil educator.'
Posted by: jenn | November 9, 2009 10:34 AM
RamziD: Thank goodness. Sometimes I don't put on my critical thinking cap. And Islander, that would have been my bet, too.
Posted by: Cruzrad | November 9, 2009 10:42 AM
Why are we bothering to acknowledge the ramblings of this obvious lunatic.?
Posted by: ellenjanuary | November 9, 2009 10:56 AM
Dammit, Jim; I'm a mathematician, not a doctor! But thanks. Got a little excited there. From Timecube to CERN... that about covers it. :)
Posted by: A. Noyd
|
November 9, 2009 10:57 AM
intothewild (#72)
Because crazy people never have any personality traits unrelated to their craziness. Right.
~*~*~*~*~*~
David Marjanović (#73)
It's an RPG reference. WISdom and INTelligence are different statistics. Usually INT is the stat that affects spell casting for mages and WIS does the same for priests. Some people even write essays on how to act out differences in the stats while roleplaying.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Cruzrad (#77)
Because it's interesting to compare it to the scriptures and beliefs of widely accepted religions?
Posted by: Sili
|
November 9, 2009 10:58 AM
Frankly, these days getting up and opening the blinds is a sign of the apocalypse.
Posted by: Raging Bee | November 9, 2009 11:06 AM
As I think others have pointed out, he's not much crazier than those mormons and their magic underwear, or the catholics and their zombie crackers...
Actually, yes, this guy IS much crazier than most of the other groups you cite. If you actually knew any practicing Mormons or Catholics, Ranum, you'd understand this. Refusing to recognize relevant degrees or gradations of irrationality, just to score cheap shots at all other religions, helps no one.
Posted by: Sastra
|
November 9, 2009 11:08 AM
Cruzrad #77 wrote:
Probably for the same reason you're bothering to notice our bothering to notice: it's all grist for the mill.
Besides, you've hit on a good point with your use of the phrase "obvious lunatic." Obvious. Finally.
Yes, this is the gold standard of lunatic ranting and rambling, and nobody argues otherwise. The point being, the rapture-ready, the homeopaths, and the alien-abducted also agree, this guy is nuts. I'd be willing to bet that even that strange woman who wrote the letter on NASA and the moon would be miffed to be compared to Time Cube.
So it's useful, in trying to separate actual schizophrenic ramblings, from the ramblings of an otherwise ordinary person whose understanding of the way the world works is seriously skewed, but not to the point of clinical madness. There are a lot of cranks, and they generally function just fine in daily life. Gene Ray is well beyond cranky.
Posted by: Matt Penfold | November 9, 2009 11:09 AM
When I a first read "WIS is not INT" my first thought was that it was an obscure C programming language declaration.
It took me several minutes to realise my mistake. I did a lot of C programming in college, but never played D&D, so I guess that might explain it.
Posted by: ellenjanuary | November 9, 2009 11:09 AM
Wrong. Wisdom not intelligence, from Dungeons & Dragons. xp
Posted by: Willy | November 9, 2009 11:28 AM
How I Met Homo Superior
Many years ago I was in Seattle with my wife and 2 year old child. While my wife went to a convention, me and the kid went exploring. By the Pike's Place Market I found a McD's for my kid to get a snack. While eating there a shaggy man, a step up from homeless in attire, sat at the table we were at. He was wearing a nametag that said"JOHN" and below that was the inscription "HOMO SUPERIOR".
He took a shine to my kid, smiling and such. Finally, he introduced himself to us.
"My name is John."
"Hi John" I replied. My kid was silent, focused on the strange man.
"Can you see my name tag?" He asked.
"Yes."
"Do you know what it means?" he queried.
Honestly, I had no clue. I was brought up catholic, so I said the the only thing that popped into my head, "You're the number one gay guy in Seattle?" Ya know, mother superior,homo superior=the same type of thing.
The man was clearly shocked by my answer. "NO! I'm not gay. I'm the new breed of human: Homo Superior!" "I invented the minivan!" he said proudly.
That was our cue to go explore some more and leave H. superior to invent even more amazing things in a world full of his inferiors.
Posted by: ellenjanuary | November 9, 2009 11:51 AM
So... what are you trying to say? Kidding. I used to love that stuff. Sat in a room one time for three days, smoking weed, playing D&D... uh, maybe I should think about what I'm trying to say. Crazy, that's it. I look rational, mostly act rational; but I'm off the charts. No big. Maybe I'll get my own classification some day... but an idiot is an idiot. An idiot in the public's eye that draws the public's scorn is just more of an idiot. All this PC crap has got people walking on eggshells. That's dumb. Comedy is always good; morality needs work. The best way to consider things like compassion is with hindsight rather than intention. Other than that, I'm really just a fool in love; in person my moral code looks fine. Online, well... everyone needs an outlet. ;)
Posted by: DLC
|
November 9, 2009 11:54 AM
David Marjanović, OM @73 : see : http://www.wizards.com/dnd
for info.
in other matters: Why does a geometric cube have 6 sides and a TimeCube only 4 ? shouldn't that be a Time Pyramid ?
Oh forget it! it's silly!
Posted by: eddie | November 9, 2009 12:01 PM
There you go again. Not everyone with a twitter account deserves to be mocked... Er, um.
Carry on.
Posted by: Sir Craig | November 9, 2009 12:21 PM
Raging Bee:
Actually, no he's not. You are confusing crazy with mentally ill. If an alien culture were to look at Gene spouting off his lunacy and then compare it to more than a billion people worshipping crackers that supposedly become zombified flesh, who do you think the aliens are going to view as "crazier"? This is not facetiousness: This is the Catholic religion at its most basic, based not only on over-the-top reactions of such notable RCC apologists like Bill Donohue, but also from personal experience (I was brought up Catholic, just to establish my street cred for you, before becoming secular and rational). What you call a "cheap shot" is simply calling it like it is, without the accomodationism you seem to favor.What Sastra calls "obvious" is even more to the point: Yes, Gene is "obviously" a lunatic, but the accepted lunacy of religious beliefs and practices is more insidious simply because is IS more socially acceptable, and to question it or mock it is to invite real physical harm from those who fail to understand IT IS ALL LUNACY.
Posted by: Matt Penfold | November 9, 2009 12:41 PM
With regards the issue of the classification of mental illness, many of the criteria for doing specifically exclude religious beliefs, especially those of the dominant religion in a particular society.
This is one of the reason why ethnic minorities in the developed world are more likely to be diagnosed as being schizophrenic. It is probably not that there is more schizophrenia within those communities, rather that mental processes that would be considered normal in the context of say Catholicism are considered abnormal when associated with different cultures.
More generally consider how someone who claims to hear voices is treated, unless the person is devoutly religious and claims to have heard directly from god.
Posted by: David Marjanović, OM | November 9, 2009 1:15 PM
Thanks, everyone. Interesting essay… even though it's flawed. :-)
Posted by: A. Noyd
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November 9, 2009 1:49 PM
Raging Bee (#81)
My best friend is Mormon. And yeah, the level of crazy in Time Cube guy's beliefs is equivalent to the level of crazy in Mormonism. Seriously.
Simply asserting the irrationality is of a different degree rather than demonstrating it helps no one.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Sastra (#82)
Emphasis on "trying." Mwahahaha. Interesting, is it not, that the separation tends to come down to the person's method of presenting of the beliefs rather than the content of the beliefs? We should look more at the mechanisms for maintaining the beliefs, too, if you ask me, given how people have elsewhere been talking about the futility of trying to reason (or ridicule) clinically crazy people out of crazy beliefs. There's this weird assumption going on that "sane" people are, deep down, agreeable to reason.
Posted by: Bill Dauphin, OM | November 9, 2009 7:05 PM
OT to this thread, but not to the general conversation about the overlap between religion and insanity, the Phelps clan is at it again!
I guess I can see where an all-loving deity would want these execrable trolls to harass the president's
satanic spawnbeautiful young daughters... ummm... NOT!!Posted by: twyg
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November 9, 2009 8:21 PM
Real nice PZ. Beat up the retard... Do you feel like a big man now? Seriously, I am an atheist and I have compassion on the mentally ill. I thought we were better than this?
Posted by: Dagger | November 9, 2009 10:52 PM
... this guy seriously needs to be medicated.
I'm not even joking. Get thee to a psychiatrist, Gene Ray.
Posted by: Holydust | November 10, 2009 4:27 AM
WIS vs. INT life example: my mom, who didn't graduate from high school or pursue higher thinking but learned a great deal from life experience, is wise, but not so intelligent.
I have lived a sheltered life and read books, and so I am more intelligent than I may be wise. It's not really complicated.
Anyhoo. Back to the crazyface.
Posted by: dk | November 10, 2009 9:27 AM
Posted by: DingoJack
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November 11, 2009 1:50 AM
"By the way, he's not a very funny guy — more like a racist homophobe with an ego. Not a nice fellow at all."
OK PZ, and what about the other one, this Dr. Gene Ray fellow? ;) - DJ