Just for fun I’ll try to translate something into vaguely Less Wrong style language. For God’s sake don’t read this if you tend to dislike my syncretism, ’cuz this is a rushed and bastardized version and I’m not gonna try to defend it very hard.
Well shucks, why not? If you’re going to complain about people not subscribing to your idea of what “soul” should mean (a controversial topic, especially here), I would hope you’d be open to debate. If you only post something even you admit is not strong, why would an opponent bother trying to debate about it? That is—I may be misinterpreting you, but when I say “this was quick; I’m not gonna try to defend it very hard” it means “even if you refute this I won’t change my mind, ’cause it isn’t my real position.”
I think folk perhaps didn’t realize that I really meant “just for fun”. I didn’t realize that Dreaded_Anomaly and I had entered into a more serious type of conversation, and I surely didn’t mean to disrespect our discussion by going off on a zany tangent. Unfortunately, though, I think I may have done that. If I was actually going to have a discussion with folk about the importance of not having contempt for ideas that we only fuzzily understand, it would take place in a decent-quality post and not in a joking comment thread. My apologies for betraying social norms.
I didn’t realize that Dreaded_Anomaly and I had entered into a more serious type of conversation, and I surely didn’t mean to disrespect our discussion by going off on a zany tangent.
Is there some way that I could have indicated this better? I asked a clarifying question about your post, and spoke against the topic in question being solely a matter of local norms. What seemed less than serious?
Well shucks, why not? If you’re going to complain about people not subscribing to your idea of what “soul” should mean (a controversial topic, especially here), I would hope you’d be open to debate. If you only post something even you admit is not strong, why would an opponent bother trying to debate about it? That is—I may be misinterpreting you, but when I say “this was quick; I’m not gonna try to defend it very hard” it means “even if you refute this I won’t change my mind, ’cause it isn’t my real position.”
I think folk perhaps didn’t realize that I really meant “just for fun”. I didn’t realize that Dreaded_Anomaly and I had entered into a more serious type of conversation, and I surely didn’t mean to disrespect our discussion by going off on a zany tangent. Unfortunately, though, I think I may have done that. If I was actually going to have a discussion with folk about the importance of not having contempt for ideas that we only fuzzily understand, it would take place in a decent-quality post and not in a joking comment thread. My apologies for betraying social norms.
I didn’t! My apologies for taking it so seriously, then.
Is there some way that I could have indicated this better? I asked a clarifying question about your post, and spoke against the topic in question being solely a matter of local norms. What seemed less than serious?