Time to retire

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Over two years ago, I joined myLot out of curiosity; I'd never before seen a "paid" forum. I knew it couldn't ever be a cash cow unless I got real busy recruiting, which I had no intention of doing. But I had to at least check it out. I wound up sticking around much longer than anticipated, because myLot turned out to be a more "personable" community than most of the others I've been a part of. I made some dear friends, most of whom are gone. But some of them remain, along with some new acquaintances who are probably well worth getting to know better. When I first joined myLot, I spent most of my time in the interest groups where my knowledge lent itself best, computers and Internet. I pointed some people toward a better free e-mail provider, a better firewall, or a better antimalware. I explained the sneaky money-making tricks behind some peoples' audacity to persistently create new Trojan horses and rootkits, or mail out spam/phishing letters. I taught particularly alarmed Internet users how to lock down Windows. And I even did a little bit of trolling in the OS and browser "religions." But after awhile, I found myself in the religious forums themselves, explaining to supposed "atheists" how science does a better job at refuting certain parts of doctrine than actually disproving the existence of a nameless, incorporeal Creator. I also did some learning of my own as I went along, eventually to find out that DNA actually adheres to strict rules of linguistics, and is in fact useless unless the cell itself is able to translate the information. I read about microorganisms whose cells have two separate nucleoli, one guarding original information in read-only storage, and verifying the integrity of the coding nucleolus' original data prior to cell division (fancy schmancy!). Curiously, I also found that scientists' responses to polls are frequently misinterpreted. As it were, as many as 65% of scientists are spiritualists (38% believe in a personal God), 19% are agnostic, and only 16% truly consider themselves to be true atheists. I even discovered that one of the world's most famous and outspoken "atheists," known as "Darwin's rottweiler," is apparently a pantheist (Richard Dawkins). And I got to see atheists lose debates against creationists of all people (with whom I myself do not fully agree), particularly when confronted on the subject of mutation, the true source to credit for taxonomic diversity. But come to find out, I've been on a merry-go-round all along: not all of the people I've been debating have been true atheists. Most of them are in fact antagonists, who suffer from an unfortunate emotional ailment (usually one or more of 3 basic scenarios, which I have explained with detail in other threads), sometimes through no fault of their own. Ultimately, they find themselves caught in an uncomfortable position where either "God" or religion as a whole (by their conclusion) becomes their enemy, and will torment them until they can fully wash their hands of even the slightest notion that any Creative Intelligence exists at all. And this is where the brutality comes in; their path to refuge encompasses the undermining of others' faith. Two years ago, I thought these people were simply unaware, as I had once been, that evolution was not as gradual as originally perceived and suggested 150 years ago by Darwin. I thought it was all an honest naivety, a student's inherent vulnerability exploited by school teachers and professors who probably knew better more often than not. But, as it were, only a precious few were gratefully enlightened when I explained where modern evolutionary theory departs from the original Darwinian hypothesis; the majority responded quite differently. They would racket back and forth with me for days at a time, until I'd finally systematically addressed every last argument they had to dish out (mostly with rebuttal, and only occasionally with concurrence). The ultimate reaction that typically followed was not at all what I'd expected when I first got involved in myLot's religious forums. These people would not see science or theism from a new angle, nor would they even attempt to dig deeper for new arguments with which to bounce back. Instead, they dispensed with scientific debate entirely, and just started rampaging the forums, entering every single discussion in the religious interest groups (regardless of topic) and posting quick one-liners which boldly declared as if scientifically established that there was no Higher Power, and that science has shown every species to arise from naturalistic, gradual evolution. I was floored. These people could care less about learning or promoting learning to others; they simply wanted to disbelieve (whether or not they actually did), and would go so far as to use outright deceit just to avoid arousing suspicion as best they could. They would assert just for the sake of a credible image of objectiveness that they held no belief at all, and secretly inject unsubstantiated and often obsolete dogma in a clever sleight of hand, all the while criticizing organized religion for the exact same thing! So what did I do? I went off on troll patrol, scouring threads for and separating truth from fiction, and dogma from established fact and/or properly expressed opinion. I started spending practically all of my free time at myLot in the religious forums, completely ignoring my more productive passion in computer science. I myself had become a "fanatic." There are people in myLot's religious forums who have positively no desire to know whether or not there could be a Higher Power, but rather to help themselves be rid of every last lingering theistic notion, however many people they have to lie to in order to attain the needed validation ("needed" being an amount that can never be reached) to "free" themselves. And right or wrong, I have wasted countless hundreds of hours researching and rebutting to help nobody, save for an agnostic or two (or three...) who actually had an open mind, and possibly a steadfast antagonist or two who have at least learned that the use of dogma is a poor method for propaganda. I could reasonably say that a simple fact like this fully redeems every minute I've invested, and still would have if only for the gain of a single person. It has also taught me to be more careful about my own wording, and disciplined me to simply politely correct flaming while holding back myself. But it has taken far too much out of me, exposed me to more negativity than anyone has a right to, and diverted my attention from a couple new avenues of online money making, into which I'd intended to dive headlong weeks ago. It's time to say goodbye to myLot, and be about my business. I appreciate everyone who has been a part of my life here; everyone who has praised me, everyone who has corrected me, everyone who has pointed my attention to something I'd previously overlooked, and even everyone who has taken affront with me for whatever reason, teaching me how to keep my cool. Anyone who would rather not see a friendship end here is welcome to contact me via the Questions/Comments hyperlink at Invincible Windows, which itself is linked to in my profile. Thanks to myLot for the opportunity to share a moment of each of your lives; and thanks to you, fellow myLotters, for sharing mine with me. Salute! -Eric P.S.: Laughing at dumb jokes is still good for your health!!!