Beaman vs. Landrith – Final Round

At Dr. Beaman’s request, I’m publishing his final response on the subject (available here).

First off, let me apologize to all members of this group who have taken any offense to my postings as part of a ‘pissing match’, as one member of this group has put it, between myself and Mr. James Landrith. I have just followed the link that Mr. Landrith posted and found that I, indeed, did write that atheists etc. should leave, just as Mr. Landrith said I did. I did not follow it back to my very original posting, if there was one, but that is most assuredly NOT what I meant. I dashed that off in haste in August. I should have been more careful.

Let me state this and make it unequivocally clear. All manner of believers and non-believers are welcome in this country and to stay for as long as they wish. HOWEVER, if they find it so repugnant to encounter public acknowledgments of God that it is intolerable to them, then they should have the intellectual honesty to leave. I will not parse what the words deist, theist, etc. mean. The Founders believed in some kind of a God and The Declaration says just that plus that our rights are divinely endowed. As an exercise, I can come to no other conclusions and request that if anyone can come up with a logical counter argument I stand ready to change my views.

As far as my childish challenges, I rally did not expect Mr. Landrith to drive 700 miles to Jacksonville and if he did and ‘took the gloves off’, the most I would have done is block any assault by him and walked away. I was trying to show some logical conclusions to things that he has on the internet. I apologize to all but again, please note, any action would have been his to initiate. I made no direct threats. And, if you read both our statements you will see that neither of us actually threatens the other.

My reference to Mr. Landrith’s Marine background stems from simple observations over the years. At least when I was exposed to recruiting, the Marines always talked about how tough they were. “Are you tough enough to be a Marine? Only the toughest can be a Marine.” That was their boast for decades. That was not only my impression but the impression of a lot of other people. I knew a lot of guys who came out disgusted with the Marines but there were a lot of guys who came out with a ‘kill the world’ attitude. It may not be Mr. Landrith’s but I was using literary license. I failed in my goal of showing some absurdism on his part and for that I also apologize to every member of this group and I apologize to Mr. Landrith for imputing to him a characteristic of the organization to which he once belonged.

With regard to political candidates, I can’t think of a circumstance where I would vote for an atheist unless he were Max Eastman. It is my right to make that call.

I think this subject has been exhausted and I want to get on with other things.

I also consider this subject exhausted and grant Dr. Beaman the last word.

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