Atheism Still Selling Well


syrakusos

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Find it where you can and shop for your price. Here in Austin at Half Price Books, a nicely used (but nonetheless very used) copy is on the shelf for $23.50. I should have bought a case when they were new...

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Find it where you can and shop for your price. Here in Austin at Half Price Books, a nicely used (but nonetheless very used) copy is on the shelf for $23.50. I should have bought a case when they were new...

What book?

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Find it where you can and shop for your price. Here in Austin at Half Price Books, a nicely used (but nonetheless very used) copy is on the shelf for $23.50. I should have bought a case when they were new...

What book?

Find it where you can and shop for your price. Here in Austin at Half Price Books, a nicely used (but nonetheless very used) copy is on the shelf for $23.50. I should have bought a case when they were new...

What book?

Lolitta.

--Brant

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Huh? I don't recall Nabokov making a case against God in 'Lolita'...

Gotcha!

--Brant

the thread has a title--should have been in quotation marks, I suppose

Heh. I gotta savour this...

Nahh, I can't hold it:

("..Nabokov making a 'Case Against God'...")

Gotcha!!

Sorry, couldn't resist.

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Interesting article in Sunday's NYT Magazine section about the new atheist movement and how clergymen who have lost faith now have support groups across the country. Hitchens and Dawkins are mentioned in the article. There are a couple of websites mentioned in the article which I might check out.

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Nathaniel Branden, in the Objectivist Newsletter, replied to a readers question "Since everything in the universe requires a cause, doesn't the universe, as a whole, require a cause?" His answer was irrefutably logical.

I buried my religious dogma right there and then, and became an atheist.

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Find it where you can and shop for your price. Here in Austin at Half Price Books, a nicely used (but nonetheless very used) copy is on the shelf for $23.50. I should have bought a case when they were new...

On Amazon you can get it used for $1.98, why's it so much more in Austin? Was it a signed copy, maybe personalized in some unique way? "To Wilma, loved the caveman sex, but maybe next time we can do it without Fred and Dino watching? Your mouth's like velvet. Woof Woof! George."

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Find it where you can and shop for your price. Here in Austin at Half Price Books, a nicely used (but nonetheless very used) copy is on the shelf for $23.50. I should have bought a case when they were new...

On Amazon you can get it used for $1.98, why's it so much more in Austin? Was it a signed copy, maybe personalized in some unique way? "To Wilma, loved the caveman sex, but maybe next time we can do it without Fred and Dino watching? You're mouth's like velvet. Woof Woof! George."

That book was stolen from me! I'm suing!

Wilma

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What book?

bk_AtheismGod.gif

Atheism: the Case Against God by George H. Smith is the context as it is perhaps George H. Smith's signature work, though he has published much more, this being the George H. Smith Corner. (Wikipedia here. ... I am impressed. I mean, some of my numismatic works appear in the Sources of articles; and I think I am cited or refuted directly in an article or two. But I mean, really, an actual entry, all for you? Wow...)

Find it where you can and shop for your price. Here in Austin at Half Price Books, a nicely used (but nonetheless very used) copy is on the shelf for $23.50. I should have bought a case when they were new...

On Amazon you can get it used for $1.98, why's it so much more in Austin? Was it a signed copy...

Well, you forget to add shipping $3.99 versus the disutility of having to wait.

If you were really half the Time Lord that you want to be, you would have gotten past the superstitions that pass for economics here on the Planet of the Apes. The theory of one price is classical baloney, as fallacious as the claim that a "just price" exists.

The manager of the "Philosophy and Religion" section figured that she could get that for it. If it doesn't sell in a few months, they will lower the price. See my blog here on Supplies and Demands. My point was only that the book continues sell well on its own merits, even 35 years later. This is clearly a work destined to bring - if not immortality - then some life after death for its author.

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Well, you forget to add shipping $3.99 versus the disutility of having to wait.

If you were really half the Time Lord that you want to be, you would have gotten past the superstitions that pass for economics here on the Planet of the Apes. The theory of one price is classical baloney, as fallacious as the claim that a "just price" exists.

Yeah well you forgot to add in the 8.25% Austin Texas sales tax ($1.94). And what did I say about "one price" or "just price"? I was looking for what feature was adding so much value to this copy, and Carol has confirmed my suspicions. Or at least I think she has. Fact is I left out one word and added two, thinking that the rightful claimant would spot the lacunae and supply the missing word. Now, the addition is obvious to any proper fan of the Brit-coms:

C'mon Carol, what did I leave out?

Mouth like velvet? As if. Velvet cake, you saucy little trollop!

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Yeah well you forgot to add in the 8.25% Austin Texas sales tax ($1.94). And what did I say about "one price" or "just price"? I was looking for what feature was adding so much value to this copy,...

It is available right here, right now. If you do not want to buy it, do not. Someone else may. Never mind the cheap humor. The fact remains that Atheism the Case Against God continues to sell well.

BTW: Texas has no income tax. It is one reason that people - and companies - move here. Sales tax is the primary funding. Austin tacked on an additional 1% to fund the public transportation system. It's a show stopper...

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Having accused other Objectivists of being humorless stalinists, I am aware of what is to follow. Also, Carol, I like you, though we do have our difference, perhaps exactly because we do. So, I am sorry to hurt your feelings over this.

I enjoy a good laugh and I am pretty good at appropriate jokes. (At a recent software demonstration, I told "... A neutrino walks into a bar." In this case, however, what I perceive here is deeply cultural.

First, the purpose of the post was to honor GHS. No one seems capable of joining in. That says much. And it is echoed in the roundabout on the proper price of this book, or anything. The expected response would be, "Right, thanks. I knew that..." But instead mocking misdirections, even pointlessly obscene, fill the space.

The wider contexts are both internal and external. Objectivism is not just about economics or politics, or even metaphysics. It is about you and your relationship to yourself. The identification of objective values is what separates this school of egoism from its predecessors. In order to respect the achievements of others, you must first respect your own. That is the foundation of Francisco's "Money Speech."

Externally - external to our persons and personalities - American culture strongly acknowledges achievement. Consider the differences between Paul Bunyon and Tyl Eulenspiegel, or Benjamin Franklin and Guy Fawkes. Long ago, in a history class my explicitly Marxist professor explained it to me well. In America, a worker sees a rich person in a nice car and says "Some day I am going to have one like that." In Europe, the worker says, "Someday, I am going to take that away."

GHS and I have had our crossed words. I still respect his work. Different people value it differently.

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Having accused other Objectivists of being humorless stalinists, I am aware of what is to follow. Also, Carol, I like you, though we do have our difference, perhaps exactly because we do. So, I am sorry to hurt your feelings over this.

I enjoy a good laugh and I am pretty good at appropriate jokes. (At a recent software demonstration, I told "... A neutrino walks into a bar." In this case, however, what I perceive here is deeply cultural.

First, the purpose of the post was to honor GHS. No one seems capable of joining in. That says much. And it is echoed in the roundabout on the proper price of this book, or anything. The expected response would be, "Right, thanks. I knew that..." But instead mocking misdirections, even pointlessly obscene, fill the space.

The wider contexts are both internal and external. Objectivism is not just about economics or politics, or even metaphysics. It is about you and your relationship to yourself. The identification of objective values is what separates this school of egoism from its predecessors. In order to respect the achievements of others, you must first respect your own. That is the foundation of Francisco's "Money Speech."

Externally - external to our persons and personalities - American culture strongly acknowledges achievement. Consider the differences between Paul Bunyon and Tyl Eulenspiegel, or Benjamin Franklin and Guy Fawkes. Long ago, in a history class my explicitly Marxist professor explained it to me well. In America, a worker sees a rich person in a nice car and says "Some day I am going to have one like that." In Europe, the worker says, "Someday, I am going to take that away."

GHS and I have had our crossed words. I still respect his work. Different people value it differently.

You don't hurt my feelings, Michael. And I am certainly sorry if I have hurt yours, or George's.I never meant to.

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First, the purpose of the post was to honor GHS. No one seems capable of joining in. That says much.

Reread your first post and consider whether it’s at all clear that your plan was to pay tribute to GHS. For instance, where’s the tribute? At best it’s a nice idea, badly executed. Since he has 3 books with “Atheism” in the title, how was anyone to know which you were talking about? So you were already opening up the floor for wisecracks. Also, consider that if one wanted to buy a copy of the recently withdrawn David Barton book, or Valliant’s PARC, they’d have to pay a premium price. In the case of ATCAG, the fact that well-thumbed used copies are available cheap is a positive thing, while if there were a zillion pristine copies available for one penny it would be yet another matter.

Take it easy and cut out the righteous indignation. You don't want to end up looking like this:

Philmarm.jpg

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And Carol, may I say, you are my favorite "soft" socialist.

(Socialists are human too, y'know! Wow: Not just Objectivists and capitalists..)

You may indeed Tony. Thank you. And may I say in return, you are my favourite Galjoen Galtgulcher.

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And Carol, may I say, you are my favorite "soft" socialist.

(Socialists are human too, y'know! Wow: Not just Objectivists and capitalists..)

Really and when the thugs they put into power come for you...are you still going to consider them "soft," when they shackle you and drag you down the stairs?

All this touchy "feely" language that allows the thugs to effect their tyranny, soft, or, otherwise has a result...that result is torture, death and the destruction of freedom.

I apologize for the edgy statements, however, in my opinion, we are, two (2) elections away from the soft tyranny that will enslave our fellow citizens.

Does anyone think that the Soviets stopped their infiltration of American society after the "collapse" of the Soviet Union?

See:

http://conservapedia.com/Venona_files

http://conservapedia.com/List_of_Americans_in_the_Venona_papers

Adam

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Good grief, Adam! Are you suggesting that I want to enslave you ? (you wish)

Tony made a nice personal reference and I responded in kind with an allusion to the South African national fish.

You of all people, I thought, would appreciate the tone of the exchange.

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and anyway, it is not touchy feely language, but history and geography, that determine the effects of political ideology on a population. Do you really think of Canada as North Korea? Of Denmark as the cold war East Germany?

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