From: Brian Holtz [brian@holtz.org]
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2004 8:13 AM
To: Mike Mynes
Subject: RE: waste of time

I stumbled on this website sheerly by accident  but I had to chuckle

I read your email not at all by accident and had to chuckle at your claim that you could "stumble" on my website "sheerly by accident". What, did your cat walk across the keyboard?

at the sheer amount of time and energy wasted in creating arguments against dieties.

My site has plenty of argument against Christianity, but otherwise little that could be called "arguments against deities". It's odd that you characterize it this way.

Do you really think anyone cares what you think in matters such as these?

Well, there's me, and there's the people who have debatedcomplimented, or criticized me. And now there's you. (The last guy who was as animated as you about the uselessness of my writing ended up donating $20 to me in appreciation of my book.)

Is there a goal or a point to all of this wasted effort other than trying to make yourself feel superior because noone has accepted your "challenge"?

If I have any feelings of superiority, they have essentially nothing to do with my challenge. Is there a goal or point to your ignoring the fact that the goal and point of my challenge is stated in the challenge itself?

(when in reality, rational thinkers don't accept because they understand what a waste of time it is)  Believers believe.  Non-believers do not.  And on both counts, the beliefs rarely if EVER have anything to do with reasoning.

No kidding.

I wouldn't get too caught up in the fact that noone has accepted your laughable challenge

"Caught up"? Let's see, I've updated the challenge's "no takers" status only once in the 14 months since posting it, so I'm not sure how you would infer that I'm "too caught up".

 - most people have much better things to do with their lives. 

Two rather obvious points seem to have eluded you:
1. The point of the challenge is to limit my time investment in Christian polemics, not expand it.
2. The challenge is addressed to "Christian apologists", not to "most people". By definition, Christian apologists choose to have nothing better to do with their lives. 

The only logical (and sad) conclusion any rational person can draw from this waste of time is that you need things such as this and delusional politics to feel like you're worth something.

The short version of my value system is: memes, genes, and fun. I don't claim that my memetic efforts will measurably help my family or species (genes), but acquiring and promoting the best memes is fun, and thus these efforts indeed satisfy two of my three criteria for worthfulness.

If you think you have an alternative value system that I haven't already evaluated and found inferior, I chall-- um, invite -- you to state it.

I love challenges, but I like them to be worthwhile and in the end, actually amount to something meaningful.

Feel free to point me at all the worthwhile and meaningful results that have accrued from you confronting challenges.