fearman's definitions
Someone who refuses to bow to the alleged power of any alleged supernatural entity, however great that power is alleged to be. One of a group of people far wiser and more common than they are usually given credit for. Someone who thinks in terms of reason rather than fear. In particular, someone who refuses to let their perfectly natural fear of death overwhelm their reason. Someone who accepts that even if there were a god worth worshipping, which cannot be proved, the divinity would be worth worshipping precisely because it supports or represents such things as justice, truth, love and compassion, which are universal human ideals and are not, contrary to the propaganda, derived from any religion. Someone who accepts that, as guides to the good life, such ideals therefore come before all else. A humanist. Atheists are often accused, by religionists who have found support in postmodernist relativism, that atheism is a religion like any other. If anorexia could be considered a favourite food, these postmodernist types might have a point ... but I'm doubting it.
Someone once said there are no atheists in foxholes. Firstly, oh yes there are: and secondly, even if it were true, that would be more an argument against foxholes than against atheism.
by Fearman September 6, 2007
Get the atheist mug.1) When Elian Gonzalez's family ran out of things to throw at the cops.
2) When the USA under JFK narrowly avoided an eldritch rendezvous with destiny.
2) When the USA under JFK narrowly avoided an eldritch rendezvous with destiny.
by Fearman September 7, 2007
Get the Cuban Missile Crisis mug.Used in expressions to describe work in which all conceivable (and some inconceivable) sources have been mined; such figures of speech might include "everything except the kitchen sink", "everything and the kitchen sink", and so on. Used in an in-joke in Star Wars III: Revenge of the Sith, in which one of the objects spinning into one of the cruisers in the opening Battle of Coruscant is, according to George Lucas, a (CG)kitchen sink.
by Fearman September 10, 2007
Get the kitchen sink mug.Advice invariably found in the literature handed out by purveyors of so-called "alternative" or "complementary" medicine, in which customers intending to buy quackery are advised to check with their GPs first to find what "mainstream medicine" has to say.
The venomous diatribes against real medicine, and science and rationality in general, behind the closed doors of the "alternative" movement should tell you all you need to know about the sincerity of the quack-my-ass clause. On the face of it, it sounds obvious, egalitiarian and big-hearted. However, the real intention of the advice is to ensure that if anyone dies or is incapacitated by taking the quack's advice or products (or by swearing off real medicine, which may not be advised on the packaging but is a stock in trade in the "alternative" industry), if the matter comes to court the quack's lawyer can claim that the product or the service was misused; obviously, they didn't check with their GP, how unfortunate, it's not our fault.
Besides, the quack knows perfectly well their client is unlikely to see their GP or specialist about whatever the problem is, or if they do they won't pay much attention to their advice. If they did, they wouldn't be coming to the quack in the first place.
The venomous diatribes against real medicine, and science and rationality in general, behind the closed doors of the "alternative" movement should tell you all you need to know about the sincerity of the quack-my-ass clause. On the face of it, it sounds obvious, egalitiarian and big-hearted. However, the real intention of the advice is to ensure that if anyone dies or is incapacitated by taking the quack's advice or products (or by swearing off real medicine, which may not be advised on the packaging but is a stock in trade in the "alternative" industry), if the matter comes to court the quack's lawyer can claim that the product or the service was misused; obviously, they didn't check with their GP, how unfortunate, it's not our fault.
Besides, the quack knows perfectly well their client is unlikely to see their GP or specialist about whatever the problem is, or if they do they won't pay much attention to their advice. If they did, they wouldn't be coming to the quack in the first place.
Ah, here's the booklet; 123 symptoms this product may be able to cure, 256 further lists of types of people the product may be able to help, 25 more natural products from the same factory that might be able to balance your energies and so on, and, oh yes, the quack-my-ass clause.
by Fearman September 10, 2007
Get the quack-my-ass clause mug.Fallacious belief that something must be good because you shelled out a lot of money for it. From the joke about two nouveau-riche types who are standing next to each other at a party wearing identical ties. One says, "I got this tie for five hundred Euro". The other says, "That's nothing. I got mine for at least two thousand Euro." Not to be confused with the principal that if you buy cheap, you get cheap ... for a yuppie's necktie is never cheap.
Don't spend a hundred grand on a car. Only those who can't see through the yuppie's necktie fallacy do that.
by Fearman September 16, 2007
Get the yuppie's necktie fallacy mug.by Fearman September 26, 2007
Get the christian mug.by Fearman September 26, 2007
Get the billions of blistering blue barnacles mug.