New Critical Thinking Forum Opened

I thought I'd post the details here as it in no way competes with LitNet, but has something some of the members may enjoy - a forum dedicated to critical thinking and activism. There are certainly several people here whose input would add to the forum.

It's designed to be fairly laissez-faire, but with an emphasis on considered and factual posts, hence the name "Recogitare".

If you like, feel free to pop in and say hi! (Drinks are free and there has just been a new coffee machine installed)

http://recogitare.com/MyBB

Your forum sounds like it would be in direct contradiction to LitNet. This forum is all about fiction, not fact. What makes you think that a bunch of fiction writers would want to "think critically"? I prefer Free thinking over you telling me how I should think.

Atheism can eat my shorts! And what ever's in them. I ate lots of chili last night and have food poisoning. DIARRHEA!

Ignoring the above post for obvious reasons, I must admit that forum does look like it could easily descend into a bunch of demagogues hurling insults from on top of their soap-boxes. A quick glance at the 'Climate Change' thread is more than enough of a clue.

I rather like LitNet's apolitical standpoint. It certainly makes for a more relaxed environment!

it looks very interesting.
thanks for the link :)

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Originally Posted by Lokasenna

Ignoring the above post for obvious reasons,

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Wise option.

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Originally Posted by Lokasenna

I must admit that forum does look like it could easily descend into a bunch of demagogues hurling insults from on top of their soap-boxes. A quick glance at the 'Climate Change' thread is more than enough of a clue.

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Looks pretty sane to me, but we're going to try to ensure it doesn't go that way.

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Originally Posted by Lokasenna

I rather like LitNet's apolitical standpoint. It certainly makes for a more relaxed environment!

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That's why I don't think there's any real overlap, I'm picking that free speech will be a lot more time-intensive than the opposite.

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Originally Posted by cacian

it looks very interesting.
thanks for the link :)

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Thanks - feel free to join in!

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Originally Posted by The Atheist

Wise option.

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god forbid anyone criticise atheism. Oh wait.

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Looks pretty sane to me, but we're going to try to ensure it doesn't go that way.

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even it means censorship?

So far it's remaining rather civilized and rational, but there are signs that it may become more amusing in the future. It reminds me that I have to look to see if Pravda English forums are still arond. That was a place that could be perfectly sane or utterly mad.

I'm prolly the last person you'd expect to contribute to this thread.

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I must admit that forum does look like it could easily descend into a bunch of demagogues hurling insults from on top of their soap-boxes. A quick glance at the 'Climate Change' thread is more than enough of a clue... I rather like LitNet's apolitical standpoint. It certainly makes for a more relaxed environment!

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An article on BuzzFeed caught my attention on the pitfalls of community, in this case atheists and/or freethinkers, but could apply to any community (for those with the tenderest of sensibilities a warning re: content): http://www.buzzfeed.com/markoppenhei...vement#3qb1os1

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY

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Originally Posted by tailor STATELY

I'm prolly the last person you'd expect to contribute to this thread.



An article on BuzzFeed caught my attention on the pitfalls of community, in this case atheists and/or freethinkers, but could apply to any community (for those with the tenderest of sensibilities a warning re: content): http://www.buzzfeed.com/markoppenhei...vement#3qb1os1

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY

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Couldn't be bothered to read all of it but about halfway in I realised these people were the usual self-important weirdos that emerge from the woodwork every now and then: in my day they were called beatniks. I wasn't altogether surprised to discover that Richard Dawkins was the inventor of the word 'memes' but please don't tell me that he also invented 'tropes': there's only so much a man can take.

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Originally Posted by Emil Miller

Couldn't be bothered to read all of it but about halfway in I realised these people were the usual self-important weirdos that emerge from the woodwork every now and then: in my day they were called beatniks. I wasn't altogether surprised to discover that Richard Dawkins was the inventor of the word 'memes' but please don't tell me that he also invented 'tropes': there's only so much a man can take.

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I'm an atheist, and I really do wish people like Dawkins, PZ Meyers, and especially Rebecca Watson would just ... shut up. They are just annoying.

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Originally Posted by Poetaster

I'm an atheist, and I really do wish people like Dawkins, PZ Meyers, and especially Rebecca Watson would just ... shut up.

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This is unlikely as they are in love with their own voices.

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Originally Posted by Emil Miller

This is unlikely as they are in love with their own voices.

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Oh, they do. :yesnod:

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Originally Posted by HCabret

god forbid anyone criticise atheism. Oh wait.

even it means censorship?

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Anyone is welcome to criticise atheism, or any other -ism, at any time. In all of my thousands of posts you won't find a single one where I have anything negative to say about people criticising atheism.

My response was entirely due to your comments about sucking diarrhea from your pants, so please don't try to make my post something it isn't. If you want a rational discussion, I'm happy to oblige, but if you just want wave your dirty panties in public, include me out.

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Originally Posted by Poetaster

I'm an atheist, and I really do wish people like Dawkins, PZ Meyers, and especially Rebecca Watson would just ... shut up. They are just annoying.

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I'm 100% with you on Myers and Rebecca Watson, but I don't think Dawkins deserves to be in the same group.

While he is an outspoken atheist, most of his recent output has been:

A about human morality, and
B Completely misrepresented by the mass media

I'm warming more to Richard D as time goes on - I thought he was making all sorts of good points recently, for me doubled by the reaction and misunderstanding of what he actually said.

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Originally Posted by The Atheist

Anyone is welcome to criticise atheism, or any other -ism, at any time. In all of my thousands of posts you won't find a single one where I have anything negative to say about people criticising atheism.

My response was entirely due to your comments about sucking diarrhea from your pants, so please don't try to make my post something it isn't. If you want a rational discussion, I'm happy to oblige, but if you just want wave your dirty panties in public, include me out.

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i don't want a rational discussion though. If that's what I wanted, then I would have sought out your site upon my own volition. This is a liturature forum, not a religion and politics forum. If your are going to post such things here, then you are going to get a literary response and not a religious or political response.

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Originally Posted by The Atheist

I'm 100% with you on Myers and Rebecca Watson, but I don't think Dawkins deserves to be in the same group.

While he is an outspoken atheist, most of his recent output has been:

A about human morality, and
B Completely misrepresented by the mass media

I'm warming more to Richard D as time goes on - I thought he was making all sorts of good points recently, for me doubled by the reaction and misunderstanding of what he actually said.

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Yeah, that's true. That I can understand.

To be honest, I have been finding it harder and harder to warm to his work purely because of his fanatical fans. I find their attitude of essentially 'Dawkins knows best' to be not just intensely boring, but overly simplistic.

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Originally Posted by HCabret

i don't want a rational discussion though.

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That was obvious from the first sentence.

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Originally Posted by HCabret

If that's what I wanted, then I would have sought out your site upon my own volition. This is a liturature forum, not a religion and politics forum. If your are going to post such things here, then you are going to get a literary response and not a religious or political response.

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That is perfectly fine, although it begs the question why, with that attitude towards critical thinking, you would click on a thread entitled "New critical thinking forum opened".

I do take into account also that there are many, many subjects in the GENERAL CHAT forum that have no relationship to literature at all, so it's not as though you would reasonably expect a thread in here to be about, or requiring, a literature perspective response. Not that I consider you response either literature or literate.

I like the way you're saying so much while actually saying very little. Nice work. I can certainly understand why the idea of a critical thinking forum horrifies you.

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Originally Posted by Poetaster

Yeah, that's true. That I can understand.

To be honest, I have been finding it harder and harder to warm to his work purely because of his fanatical fans. I find their attitude of essentially 'Dawkins knows best' to be not just intensely boring, but overly simplistic.

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I think Dawkins himself is pretty over it as well, but how can he stop them?

His forum became a fan-club, so he took the opportunity of closing it down because he felt it was all a bit frivolous. I'm with you on those fans, though - my eyes glaze just as quickly whether someone's quoting from the bible or The Selfish Gene.

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Originally Posted by The Atheist

That was obvious from the first sentence.



That is perfectly fine, although it begs the question why, with that attitude towards critical thinking, you would click on a thread entitled "New critical thinking forum opened".

I do take into account also that there are many, many subjects in the GENERAL CHAT forum that have no relationship to literature at all, so it's not as though you would reasonably expect a thread in here to be about, or requiring, a literature perspective response. Not that I consider you response either literature or literate.

I like the way you're saying so much while actually saying very little. Nice work. I can certainly understand why the idea of a critical thinking forum horrifies you.

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i hate when people tell me how I should think. Why do you insist upon converting me to atheism? There nothing noble about evangelisation.

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Originally Posted by tailor STATELY

I'm prolly the last person you'd expect to contribute to this thread.



An article on BuzzFeed caught my attention on the pitfalls of community, in this case atheists and/or freethinkers, but could apply to any community (for those with the tenderest of sensibilities a warning re: content): http://www.buzzfeed.com/markoppenhei...vement#3qb1os1

Ta ! (short for tarradiddle),
tailor STATELY

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That was an interesting article. Although I've heard his name, I didn't know much about Shermer.

Regarding the site that The Atheist recommended, I find the "activism" suspicious and suspect "critical thinking" really means self-righteous thinking which is only superficially self-critical. I see atheism as a movement to undermine secular society, removing civil liberties from those who practice what they target as religion to create an atheocracy or state atheism.

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Originally Posted by YesNo

Regarding the site that The Atheist recommended, I find the "activism" suspicious and suspect "critical thinking" really means self-righteous thinking which is only superficially self-critical. I see atheism as a movement to undermine secular society, removing civil liberties from those who practice what they target as religion to create an atheocracy or state atheism.

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I can't say I've often studied the forums The Atheist recommended, it doesn't look to me like a bastion of New Atheist thugs. If you are looking for that, you'll see it wherever you go. Believe me, there are atheists like myself who do not seek to bash religion at any given opportunity, but at the same time, atheists have an opinion that can be focal under the perceived threat of religious intimidation too. Unless either side actually knows what they are talking about (and while I'm on one side, it's clear to me neither actually does) both camps should shut up, or at learn to play nice. We are all sharing the same sand pit, and the teacher appears to have gone to the staff room for a drink.