Monday, November 14, 2005

What Happened to Paul?

Does anyone know what happened to Paul Manata? He seems to have departed the scene completely, and without even saying goodbye! There's been no activity on his blog Pressing the Antithesis since Oct. 14, and the last I saw of him in any comments section was when he tried to tackle one of my arguments in this post of Goosing the Antithesis. And while I've been described by Aaron Kinney as "a proverbial Navy SEAL in the war of ideas," Paul typically displayed a formidable tough-guy persona when interacting with non-believers. Could it be that his bad-boy image was just that, an image fabricated for purposes of intimidation? Where oh where has Paul run off to?

Will we be seeing milk cartons with Paul's picture on it with the caption "Have you seen me?" or "Missing since 10/14/05"? Perhaps it would include details that might give a clue as to how to locate him. For instance, it could say "Ht. 6'1", Wt. 190 lbs. Last seen embarrassing himself on non-Christian blogs trying to defend belief in invisible magic beings," or something along these lines.

Come to think of it, it seems that Paul's retreat is not a sole instance, for other apologists seem to have given up as well. Perhaps they all decided to take a vow of silence? Of course, that would mean that they couldn't tell us lest they break their vow silence.

by Dawson Bethrick

15 comments:

Zachary Moore said...

I believe he's still active in Gene Cook's forum.

I guess every now and then it's nice to cuddle up with people who share your superstitions.

Francois Tremblay said...

So can we claim victory against the Manata ?

Error said...

Frabsuave wrote:

"So can we claim victory against the Manata ?"

Translated:

If Manata doesn't post on his blog or comment on ours then we can claim victory

Manata doesn't post on his blog or comment on ours

Therefore, we can claim victory.

Boy, some people will reason anyway just to "win." Franc, good to see you're still good for a laugh you maple syrup eating Canadian.

Aaron Kinney said...

Well despite the maple syrup comment, I also have noticed less mean-ness in his correspondence lately. And it looks like he answered the question as to whether he is still around or not.

Maybe hes just tired of 1) losing every argument he has with the reality-based community and 2) pretending that he cannot understand the object-subject relationship. For a guy that writes so much about Any Rand, he better understand it for his own sake... and I know hes not an idiot. He may be wrong, but he isnt stupid. See, he knows that if he admits that he understands the object-subject relationship, then he automatically loses his argument. Thats why he always pretended not to get it.

Hey Paul, why arent you writing on your blog anymore? If you dont wanna write any more blog posts, than at least open the comments back up so OTHER people can write something LOL ;-)

Or at least do something! Christian apologists are dropping like flies nowadays. Youre side is losing lots of ground all across America. Havent you noticed? Dont you care?

Bahnsen Burner said...

Paul! There you are! I wondered where you had run off to! I should have figured you sought safe haven at Gene Cook's site. That did not occur to me, and I supposed it was possible that you had secluded yourself in some monastic hide-away accessible only by mule.

Paul wrote: "Boy, some people will reason anyway just to 'win'."

Yes, I know what you mean. I've seen a lot of this kind of behavior before on Christian apologetics boards.

But Paul, I still wonder, if you think it illicit for us to infer from your sudden absence from the blogosphere (without even saying goodbye, even!) that we have been victorious in our skirmishes with you (and other apologists who have likewise departed the scene), what else are we to conclude?

I'm open to suggestions.

Regards,
Dawson

dookoo said...

Just for the record, I did NOT deconvert. I'll never give up on Jesus Christ. It's simply that my personal life has become so busy that blogging is impossible; and if I am blogging, I probably should be doing something else.

So, yes, Aaron Kinney was wrong to "presuppose" my deconversion.

Of course I can't leave the blog world behind entirely; I had to come around again and see what the atheists were up to. Looks like the conversation is dying down around here.

And whoever did what they did with my former URL, well, their character is made clear with what they did.

Frank Walton said...

Dawson obviously can't stand the fact that Paul Manata defeated the crap out of Dawson's useless arguments against presuppositionalism. So, what does Dawson do? He makes a fake claim that Paul may have been defeated. Typical.

Don Jones said...

Well it looks like the you guys were wrong again.

Francois Tremblay said...

Whine whine whine, not tired enough of getting your ass kicked by Dawson eh ?

Don Jones said...

Who is whining? No one has gotten their 'ass kicked' by Dawson. I'm just pointing out that you guys are wrong, but what's new.

Bahnsen Burner said...

GF76: "I'm just pointing out that you guys are wrong, but what's new."

Who is "you guys" and on specifically what are they "wrong"? You offer no details, but must not be talking about me, for you've not pointed out anything that is "wrong" in my blog. For instance, I wrote that there's been no activity on Paul's blog since Oct. 14. I just checked again, and this is still true. I wasn't wrong about possibly seeing Paul's picture on a milk carton, for just last week I saw one just as I had forecasted! (Though I underestimated his weight... Paul's been packing on the pounds lately it appears.)

Really, GF76, my blog entry consists essentially of questions, and Zachary Moore and Not Reformed both offered answers pretty quickly. Now the theists come out with their catcalls from the sidelines, as usual having nothing intelligent to say, still holding their heads in the dark cave of denial.

Really, what's the fuss?

Regards,
Dawson

Don Jones said...

*yawn* whatever dawson...

Bahnsen Burner said...

Go back to sleep, GF. You obviously have nothing of value to contribute while in the stupor of your perpetual drowsiness.

Don Jones said...

good one dawson...

Zachary Moore said...

Strange. It's been two months now since PTA was updated, and about a month since I spotted him on Gene Cook's forum.