Comments | wallywalrus: "Excuse me sir, do you have a second?"

wallywalrus

"Excuse me sir, do you have a second?"

Feb 12, 2007 07:10

I admire my dad for a great deal of reasons, but perhaps one of the most specific of them is that he used to take a great deal of pride in debating Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses that appeared at his door. He spent a great deal of the latter 1970s as an idler intellectual of sorts, so whenever someone would come knocking at his door to evangelize ( Read more... )

Comments 11

puppetmuncher February 12 2007, 18:54:12 UTC

Nick, I need to learn your way of using words. God damn you are a good speaker.

gutzon February 12 2007, 19:58:39 UTC

Abraham is as good a take as any, although if you buy into the whole "Jews made to suffer" line of reasoning, you can make an argument for Moses, too.

Well-played overall! The use of competing theologies can throw evangelicals of all sorts.

glowing_fish February 12 2007, 22:19:58 UTC

Dao means "road".

wallywalrus February 12 2007, 22:55:54 UTC

I'm told it's a little less cut-and-dried than that by highly placed sources within the industry.

glowing_fish February 12 2007, 23:14:29 UTC

It means many things, but the basic meaning is just "road". Or "way". It is actually a lot like the English word "way". Although I don't know if the most basic meaning of "way" is "road".

"Dao" is used a lot in Chinese, in many contexts. But "Way" is also, I believe, one of the top 10 nouns used in English. And we use "Way" all the time without putting mystical connoctations into it.

wallywalrus February 13 2007, 16:51:24 UTC

Fair enough. I'll be sure to keep your insights in mind next time I decide to engage in a debate with a random passerby and Taoism comes up.

totallyanders February 12 2007, 22:38:59 UTC

Nice. This makes me realize my weakness in debate -- I try to explain myself. Maybe I ought to just ask folks "why?" a bunch and they'll stumble on their own flawed reasonings.

wallywalrus February 12 2007, 22:57:12 UTC

I've pretty much come to the same conclusion. If a four year old can trip you up by asking "why?" repeatedly, imagine what a relatively educated adult could do.

gutzon February 13 2007, 21:48:49 UTC

You still have to have that explanation ready! If they get the chance to turn the table sand ask you why, you definitely want some sort of answer at hand.

pinmonkee February 13 2007, 05:38:47 UTC

I find it funny that you "quietly prayed" for the bus to come...

wallywalrus February 13 2007, 15:24:08 UTC

Tongue-in-cheek religious humor.