All of you have way too much time on your hands, or it must be too cold in your shops to do any turning.
I found this site a few months ago, and it seems I would spend a couple of hours at a time looking and learning. Then I went away for a while, as it seemed each time I logged on there was a gang bang going on bashing someone.
Here I am again, and there is all sorts of stuff at the top when I hit "New Posts" not even related to pen turning.
One of Mrplace's tag lines is 100% on the money - more wars caused in the name of religion, no matter what your religious preference (or not) may be. Christians against Jews, Jews against Muslims, Muslims against non-Muslims, all religions against pagans, and you could fill a book. However, this has gone beyond a simple tag line, but really a lot of people wanting to roll up their sleeves and fight someone within the anonymity of the Internet.
I consider myself a fairly religious person; I do, however, have more faults than good qualities, but I work on it. One thing I have found out over the years is, generally speaking of course, if someone has their mind made up one way or the other you're not going to convince them otherwise unless there is some kind of epiphany (good or bad) that could sway their decision.
On one hand, you have the liberal atheists who want to shout it out how everyone else is wrong and force their way of thinking on you (remember the late Madeline Murray O'Hair from Austin), to other atheists who really don't give a crap what you think as long as you leave them alone. On the other side of the equation, you have have aggressive members of other religions doing the same, but at the other end of the spectrum you have other members of <insert religious preference here> who also don't give a crap as long as you leave them alone.
I visit this site because I want to learn more about my craft, ooh and ahh over your pictures of pens and say "how did he/she do that" and generally become a better woodworker in my precious free time. If I wanted to engage in a religious debate, or go bash someone in a faceless public forum I will spend my time at those sites as appropriate.
I do care about Mrplace's pen turning contributions, as I want to see what others can create; I really don't care to see an endless and pointless waste of time plowing through to see if a post is pen-turning or dogpile related on something that has been debated over and over before recorded history.
As a Christian, I do care Mrplace is an announced atheist, but there is not much I can do about it except lead my life as an example. If, when he is on the other side of the dirt and comes to the conclusion he was wrong, there is not much he will be able to do about it at that time. If, when I am on the other side of the dirt and I am wrong I'll never know - except I will have departed knowing I led my life to the fullest and, hopefully, was a good example to most of those I touched (like others, I do have regrets).
On a lighter note, since I am also an avowed capitalist, is there anything wrong with my current tagline?
Regards,
Michael in the Houston suburbs
