"He is a smart man."
BillJ

Name some others who you'd throw in during your lifetime, if you don't mind. We need context.

47. Big thing in self-help now is to tear yourself down into all the little hurts you absorbed through your life, heal all those wee parts of you, and then integrate the whole to realize your full potential. And to some extent to drag your kids along with you during this process. (Welcome to your future workforce raise by enlightened parents.)

Explaining this to someone, I said, "They want to turn you into Sybil and then back again."

Mental decoupling, indeed.

Raised by ...

49. Yes, I do.

Not even politicians. Anyone. Saints or sinners.

Not talking about liking.

Nixon was very smart, not likeable.

Someone I completely disagree with but found a fascinating listen: William F. Buckley.

And James Baldwin, another smart person, chewed him up and spit him out.

Rachel Carson.

Don't ask your wife. I only bring her up because your knowledge seems filtered through her, from your own postings.

Wow.

"From the very beginning Jobs setup Apple to be proprietary (a closed eco system) and effectively a cult.
He counts on people buying in and getting locked in for life.
But he was smart."
#59 | Posted by BillJohnson

Do you have a thing for cult leaders?

You're 60-something years old, have traveled the world (? I presume) with the US Navy, have grown up a US citizen. You have a very short list of people in the span of your life you consider smart, and then defect to

"Db,
Or maybe I just have a pretty negative view of the human race."
#64 | Posted by BillJohnson

You're just waiting for your reward in heaven, aren't you? What do you think that will be? Who do you think is going to be next to you? Better hope you don't die before the missus. There Be Smart People There.

Oh, 69!

And 68 answered very little of my question.

Are you?
#68 | Posted by BillJohnson

And that matters how?

Bill: What religion do you think you'd be if you were born to parents in a non-Christian part of China or Africa? Much of the world is.

I list 2 people so thats all the smart people I can think of?
#71 | Posted by BillJohnson at

You're wasting your breath without listing more, but you don't have to do what I ask you to do.

I really don't care about other people's posting styles, except for the two I've plonked for nonpartisan reasons.

If nothing else, you are fascinating.

"I was blessed to have a mother who indoctrinated me into the arms of Allah and a wife with similar beliefs."

Sez many more Muslims than Christians, not that it's a race. Anything or nothing that gets you in the boat. Or doesn't.

"You regret voting for Obama."
I do??

#87 | Posted by BillJohnson

More compartmentalizing.

In 1980, first chance I had to vote in a presidential election, I was a Georgia resident and felt that Carter had the state locked up against Reagan. I voted libertarian, the Ed Clark / Koch brother ticket.

Did I have my reasons for voting Clark/Koch? Yes. Do I regret that vote? Yes.

A liberal nominating 3 seats would be bad for America.

#89 | Posted by BillJohnson

Is the Supreme Court about where you like it now? Could it be more balanced? Anything out of sorts to you?

Db,
My career fit my personality.

#84 | Posted by BillJohnson

Turning that around, the hamsters in my head are spinning thinking what field suits the personality and thinking you bring to the Retort.

I don't sit around comparing my religion to others to justify my beliefs.
And atheists I actually feel sorry for.
#92 | Posted by BillJohnson

Not to justify your beliefs, but in general, do you have an impression of Christians vs. Muslims as groups? As adherents to their shared God?

Atheism is just another form of faith to me.

And the hardcores are as bad as any religious fundamentalists.

I was blessed to have a mother who indoctrinated me into the arms of Jesus and a wife with similar beliefs.

#75 | Posted by BillJohnson

I am extremely independent in my thinking.
I don't follow anyone or any groups.
After being exposed to information
I form my own opinions which I sometimes change.

Yes, words matter.

Interesting that you view your childhood church experience as one of indoctrination. While common, that's by no means universal.

Interesting that you've been exposed to nothing in your life to move you off that dime, either. I have great admiration for some people who say that, but the group your religious perspective has thrown in with has "completely lost their minds. I just don't know what has happened to them. I have some opinions" (more BillJ).

Too much quoting. I'm getting like Hans, and sick of myself.

I taught college mixed in with my day job.
That might be the personality what you see from me on here sometimes.
#96 | Posted by BillJohnson

Not exactly. When I think of academics around here who seem interested in passing along digestible, factual information, and knowing more than what they post, my mind goes to Doc Sarvis.

Don't know what your day job is or was, but buddy, you ain't no Doc Sarvis.

#105 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS

I consider you an academic without portfolio, which might rank higher.

"... who seem interested in passing along digestible, factual information"

not all of whom seem to be academy-trained, FWIW -- and not that that matters. I was thinking academic in the professional sense.

I'm just a poor sap with a BA degree, so what do I know?

111.

"The nice thing about being a civilian is that you outrank people like generals and colonels."

Jim Rockford

100.

I've thought about this. I don't like thinking. Cramps my style.

Fortunately or unfortunately, ever since humans began until today, people seem to have wanted to have faith that something outside their realm of knowledge is holding things together. Seasons, fertility goddesses, sacrifices, stars, "God(s)," sweat dances, 12 step programs, . . .

No country that has ever officially been atheistic is in practice, because the people won't admit to what they are doing behind closed doors or in their heads or why. And faith becomes public again, if allowed. Yet faith is still misunderstood, because what people know about it is not from the experience of themselves or those around them, unless they are of a stripe to proclaim their faith as part of their practices.

So, because of some life circumstances that spun bizarrely out of control last year, to the wonder of everyone who watched a train completely derail, I was kinda forced into what might be called some realizations. My primary takeaway is that I need to keep the faith daily that about the only thing truly in my control is what's in my hands that moment. Much else has been stripped away. There is no higher power except the one you and I and everyone else are a part of, right now. Some people call it panentheism. Doesn't feel right, but whatever.

Unless we are truly indoctrinated, we all take Pascal's wager. I can easily live with my choice.

Wikipedia is being a beyotch.

Pascal contends that a rational person should adopt a lifestyle consistent with the existence of God and should strive to believe in God. The reasoning for this stance involves the potential outcomes: if God does not exist, the believer incurs only finite losses, potentially sacrificing certain pleasures and luxuries; if God does exist, the believer stands to gain immeasurably, as represented for example by an eternity in Heaven in Abrahamic tradition, while simultaneously avoiding boundless losses associated with an eternity in Hell.

In my mind, I never made that wager. But there it is.