If one were to create a taxonomy of bloggers, there would be a substantial genus of assholes, species, total. Most people are occasionally assholes, or people who are assholes on one topic. But asshole-dom simply consumes some people. Their most tolerable statements involve insincere modesty and their worst drip with contempt.
This guy, for example. To save you reading time, this is a guy one of those "raving atheists" types, a fanatic at heart, even when trying not to be. He also considers himself a philosopher, hates Christianity (duh, of course) and considers communism the truth. More importantly for our purposes, he is an autodidact.
Now, anyone who is an autodidact on a specific topic risks terminal intellectual sphincter-itis. However, some self-taught subjects lend themselves to moderating influences. Say you are a self-taught plumber. You start with a how-to book. You follow the steps, and lo and behold, something didn't quite work ... ok, you take another look at the book, you take a look at your plumbing, and you apply your mind and hands and figure it out. There is a result. As you repeat these experiences, you learn new things (tested by reality) and eventually you have re-invented the wheel (i.e., plumbing). It probably took you 10 times as long as it would have had you simply asked someone with knowledge of plumbing, but alas, you'll probably miss some stuff, but at the end of the day, the toilet flushes, and you probably won't have contempt for others.
Unfortunately, not all topics lend themselves to this kind of testing. Becoming self-taught "expert" almost guarantees intellectual rectosis. Most of the humanities, for example. You do not want to teach yourself philosophy. Or political science. Or even something seemingly as harmless as English literature. That doesn't mean you can't read widely and broadly on these topics, but it's important to remember that without subjecting yourself to cross examination and lots of real-world application, it's a hobby. Lots of stuff sounds good in our minds. Lots of stuff seems perfectly logical that is complete BS. And sometimest the truth is more difficult to explain and harder to defend than BS, but the truth nonetheless passes the real-world test.
So, back to the Barefoot Bum. He's obviously well-read. He's obviously intelligent. And he's attempted to address all the obvious objections, and many of the not-so-obvious ones, to his worldview. Wouldn't want to argue with him. Chesterton warned, famously, that a madman has lost eveything but his reason. If you argue with such a person, you'll likely get the worst of it because they've carved out an internally logical worldview that's practically impermeable to outside influences. And they've got a lot more at stake at defending that worldview — after all, they're emotionally committed to it, even if it sounds like it's all about reason. Even if you called him on his contempt, he'd just probably explain why it's justified. See Alice Miller, Drama of the Gifted Child.
Plus, he's childish. Suffers temper tantrums, defaults to name-calling, that sort of thing. Tends to refuse to engage on a concrete level. He's nuts, which would be OK if he wasn't so contemptuous.
When it comes to God, for example, you can argue forever, or you can just tell someone to pray. They'll object intellectually, but to someone who has intellectually rejected God and built a philosophical foundation, well, they need to experience God directly before they get it.
So my challenge to any atheist is to pray the Lord's Prayer every evening for three weeks. Pour out your heart to God — tell Him your innermost thoughts, worries, concerns, even crimes. Confess the times you've hurt someone else. Ask for forgiveness. Pray for faith, understanding and wisdom. Hey, if you're just a meat-machine, it can't hurt. Or maybe the atheist will discover that there's more than one way of knowing, and that some of us know something he or she doesn't.
Or, as an autodidact, you can listen to no one but yourself ... and not get it.
