Bob Spence has passed away.
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Bob Spence passed away 1:45 pm Brisbane Australian time. He had a college degree in electrical engineering. He is survived by his brother Will and his wife Debbrah and his close friend Mike. Bob and I did a show on Freethought Radio "Did I Think That, Or Say it" where he was my co- host. Later he was one of 4 on a radio show here called "BJ's and BS". He was more of a straight guy, but everyso often he would come out of the blue with a zinger.
Bob and I met back in 01, and talked justs about every single day on Skype up until his stroke. Bob taught me to not be afraid of debating theists. He lead me to a lot of authors books. He accepts me the way I am. Was always there for me, especially when my mom had health issues which made me very depressed. I love his stories about his travels which reminded me of Higgens on Magnum PI. He has tons of framed photographs he took on his travels. Really high quality like National Geographic or Smithsonian Museum quality. I shipped 3 of them back from Australia and they are now haninging in my living room. At least I got to see him in person once. My only regret is that he never got to meet my mom in person.
I love him so much, he is my best friend.
The following is a link to an ode poem to Bob. It is about how he one day explained Dawkin's criticism of Plato in his book "The Greatest Show On Earth". I was having a hard time understanding Dawkins criticism so I passed it by Bob, and Bob explained it to me. "The Murder of Essence" post #987 in the link below.
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/31771?page=19
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
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We're all dying....
Doesn't make it hurt less. Yes it is part of nature. It still hurts when you are that close to someone, friend or family.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
If you think I'll have anything supportive to say think again. You and Bob burned those bridges.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Not expecting anything from you. Your capacity for empathy for others is underwhelming.
Would you like to viify my late mother too, she loved him too.
Please show everyone your true nature.
Bob is a very kind and gentle and decent man and just because he didn't agree with others here does not make him a bad person.
Thank you for taking the time to kick me right now. Not surprised though.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
My capacity for empathy is far beyond your own scum bag.
Your mom never attacked me unprovoked, I have no reason or justification to vilify her. You and Bob are hypocrite scum who have attacked me unprovoked, and I promised you you'd pay for it. Keep whining bitch. See if it makes any difference.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Never really knew Bob. I recall when he stoppped posting here. Some big blow up.
It is disappointing to here of his suffering and I hope he passes with out pain.
He passed away their daytime my overnight . I love him so much. I am at a loss for words right now.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
I know, empathy only if there is a net benefit for yourself. Same formula used by capitalist pigs when deciding to do an economic transaction. But, I know I'm the sociopath for pointing this out.
Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success. --Mark Skousen
EXC is too stupid to understand empathy can be suspended for enemies of humanity like himself and Brian, indeeed it must be.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Pot calling the kettle black?
Not in the slightest.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Ad hominem?
Well obviously. Both these clowns decided to go ad hominem before I did though, so I take no responsibility for the quality of conversation as seen by others.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Just working on my fallacy skills.
I do find your comments interesting about empathy though. You don't seem to have any.
I have no empathy for anyone who is such an ass that they put themselves in the "they" column. As is normal human behaviour. Very few have empathy for enemies, and they tend to get weeded out by evolution..
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I disagree. If you have empathy, then you know what the other person is feeling. It sounds like you are mixing pity up with empathy.
Your logic is faulty. If I know that another person feels bad and I know they deserve to because they are scum and enemies of humanity then I can use my empathy to make them feel worse. Empathy doesn't imply what you seem to think it does.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Empathy is when a person can understand and feel the emotion/feelings of the other individual.
It doesn't matter that you know that the other person feels bad. Empathy would allow you to understand why they are sad and that you feel the sadness too.
And use that against them. I don't know how you can fail to see it with how simple this is. People have done this instinctively for all of recorded history. The average troll on the internet understands it on a sufficient level to utilize it. Whether they are conscious of what they are doing I cannot say, but they are doing it. If a friend is hurt badly you feel bad for them. When an enemy is hurt badly you feel indifferent or even good about it. This is very basic psychology. A sociopath who doesn't have empathy can never emotionally hurt someone as badly as a person who understands empathy can.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
I don't fail to see; I understand your posts and understand your position.
An internet troll does not feel empathy for others. They might have sympathy, but not empathy.
Sympathy is pity. You are getting it confused with empathy.
Clearly you have insufficient education to have this conversation. I took psychology and criminal psychology. Where's your education backing up your ridiculous claim?
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
Appeal to authority
False. I am an authority, and you have no argument. You got sympathy and empathy backwards and you can't even use the most basic logical fallacies correctly. An appeal to authority would be me claiming I've training in psychology and debating astrophysics with that a my credibility. Not claiming I've psychology training and debating psychology.
According to your argument, if Trump died tomorrow and the entire left in the US rose up to celebrate, they'd all be lacking empathy and thus be sociopaths. Similarly the majority of the right would also lack empathy and be sociopaths for opposing immigration and a fair justice system. So literally almost every American is a sociopath who has no empathy.
You couldn't be less logical and more ridiculous if you tried.
Enlightened Atheist, Gaming God.
randomly checking in today. my condolences. as i said when i heard he was ill, our differences didn't make me wish suffering on him or his.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
I appreciated Bob's contributions to the arguments here. Sorry to hear he's gone.