Thank you very much!
A small element of my own personal quirks (which, alas, I keep screwing up) is to avoid using the words ‘argue’ and ‘debate’. Arguing is like trying to ‘already be right’, and Debate is a test of social ability, not the rightness of your side. I like to discuss—some of the greatest feelings is when I suddenly get that sensation of “OH! I’ve been wrong, but that makes SO MUCH MORE SENSE!” And some of the scariest feelings are “What? You’re changing your mind to agree with me? But what if I’m wrong and I just argued it better?”
I’m not really looking to try to convince anyone of Christianities’ less-wrongedness, but it seems to be a topic that pops up with a decent frequency. (Though admittedly I’ve not read enough pages to really get a good statistical assessment yet) Since it was directly mentioned in “Welcome to Less Wrong,” I figured I’d make my obvious biases a bit of public knowledge. :) But I always do enjoy theological discussion, when it comes my way.
I look forward to discussing with you soon. :) I’m taking my time getting through the Sequences, at the moment, but I’ll keep an eye on those introductory posts as well.
Greetings, all. Found this site not too long ago, been reading through it in delight. It has truly energized my brain. I’ve been trying to codify and denote a number of values that I held true to my life and to discussion and to reason and logic, but was having the most difficult time. I was convinced I’d found a wonderful place that could help me when it provided me a link to the Twelve Virtues of Rationality, which neatly and tidily listed out a number of things I’d been striving to enumerate.
My origins in rationality basically originated at a very, very young age, when the things adults said and did didn’t make sense. Some of it did, as a matter of fact, make more sense once I’d gotten older—but they could have at least tried to explain it to me—and I found that their successes too often seemed more like luck than having anything to do with their reasons for doing things. I suppose I became a rationalist out of frustration, one could say, at the sheer irrationality of the world around me.
I’m a Christian, and have applied my understanding of Rationality to Christianity. I find it holds up strongly, but am not insulted that not everyone feels that way. This site may be slanted atheist, but I find that rationalists have more in common with each other no matter their religious beliefs than a rationalist atheist has with a dogmatic atheist, or a rationalist Christian has with a dogmatic Christian, generally speaking.
I welcome discussion, dialog, and spirited debate, as long as you listen to me and I listen to you. I have a literal way of speaking, and don’t tend to indulge in those lingual niceties that are technically untrue, which so many people hold strongly to. My belief is that if you don’t want to discuss something, don’t bring it up. So if I bring something up, I’d better darn well be able to discuss it. My belief is also that I should not strongly hold an opinion if I cannot strongly argue against my opinion, so I value any and all strong arguments against any opinion I hold.
I look forward to meeting many of you!