Gollum, too, proved unexpectedly useful in the end, although he really didn\u2019t mean to be.
Image by Daniel Govar (Wikimedia CC)
Click to enlarge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Okay. \u00a0I admit that my most zany detractors can be (and, when I\u2019m paying real attention to them, often are) exasperating. \u00a0They misread, and read crazy things into, just about everything I write. \u00a0They make wild accusations. \u00a0They harshly criticize not only my faith and my views, but my appearance, my movie preferences, my employment, my taste in music and literature, my character, my writing style, my personality, my punctuation, and just about everything else about me. \u00a0It\u2019s as if they cannot grant me a single redeeming quality, no matter how slight and inconsequential.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And sometimes they flatly make things up. \u00a0Every once in a while, for instance, I see accounts of absolutely awful things that I\u2019m supposed to have said \u2014 in conversations that never took place, whatever the anonymous poster sharing them may claim. \u00a0And did you know that my daughter has told close confidantes of hers about what a terrible parent I am, what a rigid and overbearing fanatic and tyrant I was throughout her childhood? \u00a0One of those confidantes revealed this on an apostate message board a few years back. \u00a0Alas, though, I don\u2019t have<\/em> a daughter.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the more bizarre and extreme critics can also sometimes be cute, and even downright funny.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Two examples:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Back in 2004 or thereabouts, I was responding (somewhere) to <\/span>an attacker who was accusing me, as some regularly do, of being a nasty and vicious brute. \u00a0Having had enough of the \u201cconversation,\u201d I cheekily admitted to him that \u201c<\/span>The total depravity of those who disagree with me is an important article of my personal faith.\u201d<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was obviously \u2014 at least I thought<\/em> it was transparently, obviously \u2014 a bit of humor directed toward some of my more extreme critics, who like to portray me (just as this one was doing) as mean-spirited, callous, unloving, hateful, arrogant, narrow-minded, and cruel.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But the humor plainly wasn\u2019t obvious enough for them;\u00a0for more than ten years \u2014 the most recent iteration was four days ago \u2014 they\u2019ve been treating the statement as a candid and serious revelation of my inner core. \u00a0For once in my wretched and ignoble life, they say, I was being honest. \u00a0It confirms for them what an unfeeling and egotistical swine I am.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t you find that funny? \u00a0I do.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, just yesterday, responding to an aggressively vocal atheist who frequently (but always civilly) comments on my blog, preening himself (as I see it) on his supposedly superior rationality, I wrote \u201cYou made a dubious claim. Are we supposed to accept it as true simply because you assert it? \u00a0You need to be aware that, by posting here, you\u2019ve joined an evidence-based community. \u00a0We go by reason here, not by bare, unevidenced assertions.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was, I thought, a transparently obvious spoof of the sort of pretentious and self-congratulatory language that some fairly militant atheists routinely apply to themselves. \u00a0(Or should I call them \u201cBrights\u201d? \u00a0Some have claimed that title \u2014 to distinguish themselves, I guess, from us Dulls or Dims.)<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Once again, though, the humor was wholly lost on at least a few hostile ideologues and\/or total-war critics. \u00a0There are folks out there, even as I write, who are pointing out \u2014 entirely seriously! \u2014 that, despite my supposed commitment to reason and evidence, I haven\u2019t provided irrefutable proof for my religious beliefs. \u00a0Some of them actually seem to be indignant about my brazen hypocrisy.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wow.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
So, yes, my really over-the-top detractors can be, and often are, noisome. \u00a0I grant that. \u00a0But they can also be a source of mirth and diversion. \u00a0Thus, in an odd way, I appreciate having them around.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Okay. \u00a0I admit that my most zany detractors can be (and, when I\u2019m paying real attention to them, often are) exasperating. \u00a0They misread, and read crazy things into, just about everything I write. \u00a0They make wild accusations. \u00a0They harshly criticize not only my faith and my views, but my appearance, my movie preferences, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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