Welcome

2000-11-17 09:44:00

I want to welcome Ivan to the list. I see you have concerns that you will not be welcome, apparently because of some of the friction we have had recently.

From my experience with this list and its members I have found them overall to be a fine bunch of individuals, yet indeed they are individuals. There are only three things a people have done to make themselves unwelcome.

(1) Express rudeness with name calling and bad language. This has been very rare as most are civil to each other.

(2) Disregard the fact that this course has a direction and curriculum that is the reason most people joined in the first place. If one spams the list with unrelated material or seeks to post unrelated material and seeks to change the direction of the class, members tend to get a little testy. Members are allowed to post short interesting tidbits that are off topic if they label them OT. For long posts we advise them to refer us to a web page.

(3) Challenge every teaching I present with no apparent desire to learn from the class situation.

Now I personally do not mind this and have met every challenge that has been presented to me, but a challenging attitude is seen by most members as disruptive causing us to slow to a crawl as far as progressing through class discussions. Many also feel that these challenges often lead to an endless dialog, are very distracting and take us off course. I cannot blame them for thinking this.

Some of our members also have old computers and printers and find it expensive to print out all these discussions they do not want to read.

Therefore Ivan, unless you see yourself in one of these three categories you will find yourself in very friendly territory.

Any sincere questions or disagreements are always welcome and rarely criticized by anyone.

But all must realize that the group and individuals are human and therefore, a certain amount of tolerance is called for.

I'm glad you liked the book and I think it is a good to read periodically, but also take note that all was not peace and tranquility within its pages. There was fierce conflict with Philo, the doctor and others just as there is periodical conflict on the list. The growth comes by solving the conflict and moving on to higher ground.

I personally believe that we, as a list, are about ready to move up one more notch and invite all to stay with us and make this list a great place to be.

The good and loving people should be the ones most determined to stay and assist in the triumph of the dominating good.

"We say that God himself is a self existent being. Who told you so? It is correct enough; but how did you get it into your heads? Who told you that man did not exist in like manner upon the same principles?"
Joseph Smith