Another bad experience

[fpb]

Why in God's name did I ever place my essay on JKR's religion on FA? Most of the responses I received have been appalling: those who did not insist that Christianity meant anything they wanted it to mean simply imagined that I was criticizing JKR for not holding it, on the supposition - which I explicitly denied dozens of times - that you cannot be a decent person without being Christian. God Almighty, the whole damned essay begins with me denying that Christian is a term of moral approval! Do these idiots even know how to read, or do they just play with letters like babies or monkeys?

Comments

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I don't really think it's me. I think that the people who replied would have reacted as badly to you, if you had presented a similar point with your customary urbanity. I think that you have people there who simply do not understand the basic point from which I started - that Christianity is a belief and not another word for morality, and that that belief is quite clearly defined and cannot be altered at whim. It has to do with bad education and the wretched habit of people who know nothing about a subject to have strong opinions about it anyway - something that you, as a scientist and statistician, surely have come across.

[stigandnasty919.livejournal.com]

It wasn't so much the original essay I was thinking about, more some of your responses to the comments. I simply get the impression that sometimes you quite enjoy stirring up a wee argument here and there. Not a criticism, by the way, as almost anyone from Northern Ireland will agree I am describing a noble calling. That of "winding up the glipes for badness".

And you are quite right, it drives me up the wall to see the trivialisation of knowledge or news and the use to which stats are put. Not just by those who have no knowledge, but those who think that everything should be made understandable to everyone.

But then the price we have to pay for giving everyone a voice is that lots of people make use of it.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Very well put. But one wishes that the distinction between expert and charlatan could be made a bit more clear.