I apologize. I assumed that you would be concerned how you were preceived by others. I see that I may be the only one that feels that this is offensive. I am sorry for forcing you to explain something that I should have already noticed. It might be best for me to withdraw for a time to, as Ice-Nine put it, breath. At any rate, I have work in other forums to attend to.

"Speak on, oh sweet lips that never told a lie."

ZZ

You are all a fine bunch, indeed. If only my colleagues were as civil.

However, I am no intellectual - Where do you guys get this stuff? I'm nowhere close to being in the same league as those fine philosophers either.

I try to study philosophy, and interesting..... Every interest I pursue has the same obstacles.... There is this point in any endeavor that is difficult to cross.... It's when you realize tht you have grasped the basic ideas of a field, and that others before you have already explored nearly every imaginable angle - so much so that they boil it down already for us - like in Philosophy...

All philosophical thought can be routed through one of three branches:
1. Value Theory - What is goodness? What is value?
2. Epistemology - Do our beliefs count as knowledge?
3. Metaphysics - What is....? Does reality exist?

Philosophy further breaks these categories down and from there, it goes.. NOmatter how original you are, nomatter how deeply you think, your idea will fall somewhere under one of these headings. and probably, if you feel you have a really original idea, you can do a little research and find out that there is a whole branch of philosophy that already has been devoted to your special idea. These branches are so very thorough that you must learn a wealth of them to be able to get a grasp as to where philosophy is today. What the history of philosophy has already discovered to be true and false.

All very fascinating to me, and I am learning everyday... But it is a damned serious affair.. There are even technicians of philosophy who can manipulate ideas to their favor just by using psychological tricks... This is done a lot. Not by me, mind you, I am not that good.

I respect intellectuals, like Camille Paglia - she's my hero right now. She stuns me. I am not in her league at all. I feel like I have the curiosity to one day be in a similar league, but right now, I am a novice, who is lucky to be able to put sentences together in a neat way sometimes. I need a break also. I do enjoy these forums, tho... and will continue them, but school starts back next week and I'm sure I have a lot of preparation before then.

Looking forward to continuing this sharing of ideas in the future.. I'll still check this site dailoy... It's a great all around site, no?

Love

edit 56.

Okay, you people....

Srop what you're doing and reply to these posts. there's world-changing to do. Do your part!

Let's hear from the A-men section a little. Don't be shy, dangit.. Let's hear what y'all have to say.

Look, I'm busy too. But hey.... What's more important than what we're talking about on these forums. The answers to the questions we raise about eternity are of supreme importance. Every man should have a mandate to inquire, inquire, inquire....

So, speak out! Give us Hell! Heaven - or something....

hut hut hut hut hut hut hut hut!