Re: UPDATE ON FRED HUSSEY
 

Tom says: OTOH, the downside for you is that when your time comes, you will know if you wagered wrong.

Re: UPDATE ON FRED HUSSEY
 

Fred, you deserve better than a lingering obscure liver disease. You surely deserve a sudden, spectacular disaster, a final rage against entropy. Something ultimately pointless but really thought-provoking and clever, just like most of our arguments. As a certifiable massochist, I've missed your irritating comments to my posts. Take pride in the fact that no one else irritates me the way you can, you have a gift. From where? I'll leave that to better minds than mine, but a gift nontheless.

"Masochist" jb
"Nonetheless" ts

Re: UPDATE ON FRED HUSSEY
 

Todd says:Hey Todd, thanks for he sentiments.

Don’t know about you being a masochist, but as a so-called atheist apparently refusing to acknowledge that atheism inevitably and unavoidably reduces to nihilism, I tend to find your intellectual honesty and rigor, please forgive me, a tad lacking.

OTOH, as I recall, you’re not an antitheist, as most atheists tend to be, so I suppose that’s a plus, although that may be the case simply b/c you tend to be somewhat wishy-washy on so many things.

All the best to you and your family.

Re: UPDATE ON FRED HUSSEY
 

Great to see you're well enough to reply, Fred.

Sure, I can be more prone to deliberation than instant decision, but much of what you call wishy washy, I would like to think of as reasonableness. Is it good to be reasonable to this degree? Maybe not, but it's part of my sense of how I think I'm supposed to interact with people, and I'm probably too old to give it up. :rolleyes:

I don't know why the "intelligent spirit" kind of religion never "took" in me, but I don't begrudge people in whom it does take.

One interesting theory that I've recently been reading about is that maternal genes and paternal genes compete in producing mentalistic vs. mechnistic thinking tendencies to serve the unique selfish needs of each gamete.

According to this theory, the extreme paternal brain tends to be on the autistic side and has a deficit compared to others in interpreting minds and seeing minds in nature. The extreme maternal brain is "hypermentalistic" and tends toward paranoia rather than autism. It's a big theory and it seems like a stretch at first, but it would go a long way to explaining why people like me seem to be so insistent on thinking of mental things in mechanical terms, and some others are so much more tempted to see intentions all around them. Exceptional geniuses seem to be able to do both, growing up with Aspergers symptoms and later tending toward the psychotic, but somewhere in the middle having an exceptional amount of both.

See Christopher Badcock, "The Imprinted Brain." Badcock reminds me of Brody in some ways.

You and your wife are in my thoughts, Fred. Be well.

Todd

Re: UPDATE ON FRED HUSSEY
 

Todd says: I truly appreciate that Todd.

When I was in the hospital (three different stays over about a month), I never wanted visitors, cards, flowers, etc., but I always, truly, appreciated that I was in the prayers and/or thoughts of various folk. It means everything to me.

(Regarding my current battle with my UC, I’m currently in the middle of it, trying different things, not certain of the outcome----I’ll try to update this if/when I see some sort of, shall we say, clinical response or remission, or whatever. Perhaps it’s trite, but one must simply take these things a day at a time.)

Thanks again Todd and all the best to you and yours.
Fred