What is SPAG

[commie_atheist]

i am new here so i going to ask an easy question.  what is a SPAG?

[LadyLucy]

i am new here so i going to ask an easy question.  what is a SPAG?

SPAG: Self-projection as god.

[velkyn]

or GASP: God as self-projection 

[commie_atheist]

i see, well thank you for the timely reply ladies.

learn something new everyday, sometime multiple things.

[velkyn]

i see, well thank you for the timely reply ladies.

learn something new everyday, sometime multiple things.

cool photo by the way. You wouldn't happen be part of the 501st or have stormtrooper armor?   

[Tinyal]

SPAG = Self Projection As God.

Means that person's god ends up being just what they want it to be   Term invented here on the forum, as far as I can tell (I may be wrong).

[screwtape]

i am new here so i going to ask an easy question.  what is a SPAG?

Tinyal is correct.  As far as anyone I know can tell, the term was coined by an old timey member, DTE.  Here is his second post ever, in the old forum:

Hello. I'm a deconverted theologian. I stumbled onto the YouTube videos and enjoyed them very much. (They weren't the source of my deconversion.)

I believe that all religion is self-projection as God, which is why no Christian takes seriously the Bible applies what he likes and only what he likes to himself and to others.

I hope my background allows me to be of some use and interst and I look forward to participating, as I'm sort of an internet forum junkie.

god dammit, he was brilliant.  He elaborates more on it in later posts like this entire thread.  I suggest you peruse his posts there.

[commie_atheist]

i am new here so i going to ask an easy question.  what is a SPAG?

Tinyal is correct.  As far as anyone I know can tell, the term was coined by an old timey member, DTE.  Here is his second post ever, in the old forum:

Hello. I'm a deconverted theologian. I stumbled onto the YouTube videos and enjoyed them very much. (They weren't the source of my deconversion.)

 

I believe that all religion is self-projection as God, which is why no Christian takes seriously the Bible applies what he likes and only what he likes to himself and to others.

I hope my background allows me to be of some use and interst and I look forward to participating, as I'm sort of an internet forum junkie.

god dammit, he was brilliant.  He elaborates more on it in later posts like this entire thread.  I suggest you peruse his posts there.

damm that guy is smart.

[Gnu Ordure]

Screwtape:

As far as anyone I know can tell, the term was coined by an old timey member, DTE.

Interesting - the RationalWiki article on SPAG credits a Vince Skolny with the origin of the term.

But the article cited as proof of that dates to 2009 - whereas DTE's post is Feb 2007.

Does DTE claim authorship of the phrase? Or is he Skolny?

I'm going to ask RationalWiki about it...

[xphobe]

Screwtape:

As far as anyone I know can tell, the term was coined by an old timey member, DTE.

Interesting - the RationalWiki article on SPAG credits a Vince Skolny with the origin of the term.

But the article cited as proof of that dates to 2009 - whereas DTE's post is Feb 2007.

Does DTE claim authorship of the phrase? Or is he Skolny?

I'm going to ask RationalWiki about it...

Skolny's article says only "that we call...".  He doesn't make a claim to have come up with the term.  Maybe he got it from one of us.

And/or you could ask Vince Skony about it.
http://www.squidoo.com/vince-skolny

[Graybeard]

god dammit, he [DTE] was brilliant.  He elaborates more on it in later posts like this entire thread.  I suggest you peruse his posts there.

I’ve just read the entire 7 pages. I would recommend it to anyone. No offence to other posters but only read the posts by DTE, PastorAlan  and The Author, otherwise you’ll be there all day.

Note also how civilised the debate is – very restrained.

(Yes, it is a bit late and off-topic)

[Gnu Ordure]

Xphobe:

Skolny's article says only "that we call...".  He doesn't make a claim to have come up with the term.

If you look at the revision history for the RationalWiki article, you see that a user named Skolnyweb made the edit in January '11 claiming that Skolny coined the phrase...

[xphobe]

OK I'm mad now.  If Skolny is not DTE (anyone know if DTE is married?) then it's a blatant rip-off!  Somehow I can't feature DTE in real life as some kind of motivational self-help guru, but who knows.

Do you suppose DL was alerting us to this, when he posted (in typical cryptic DL fashion) http://whywontgodhealamputees.com/forums/index.php?topic=11251.0

Of course, the idea of SPAG is not new.  Ludwig Feuerbach proposed it in the 19th century.  But the acronym is DTE's.  He and kcrady are the only two residents who ever achieved any kind of notoriety in the world outside of wwgha (unless you count Davedave's invasion of the Reason Project).

[Graybeard]

Xphobe:

Skolny's article says only "that we call...".  He doesn't make a claim to have come up with the term.

If you look at the revision history for the RationalWiki article, you see that a user named Skolnyweb made the edit in January '11 claiming that Skolny coined the phrase...

Skolny's and DTE's styles of writing are miles apart; I tend towards thinking that Skolny heard it somewhere and claimed it. DTE's claim goes back to 2007.

[lotanddaughters]

He elaborates more on it in later posts like this entire thread.  I suggest you peruse his posts there.

Thank you for this. Talk about Christians getting thrown to the lions! DTE was destroying those Christians. Then that John guy chimed in and added insult to injury(not literally, because he was genuinely making valid points and was not trying to insult). I am just amazed how anyone could believe in Christian mythology after reading arguments like that.

[Gnu Ordure]

Jetson, could I ask you separate the SPAG posts into another thread?

(These are the posts, 28 29 30 31 35 44 46 49 50 53 54, and this one).

Xphobe:

OK I'm mad now.  If Skolny is not DTE (anyone know if DTE is married?) then it's a blatant rip-off!  Somehow I can't feature DTE in real life as some kind of motivational self-help guru, but who knows.

Let me help you, Xphobe.

The RationalWiki article on SPAG now starts off:

Self projection as god, or SPAG for short, is a term coined by a poster named DTE on the atheist forum WhyWontGodHealAmputees in early 2007.[1] The concept itself is not new; the idea that Man creates God in his own image can be traced to Ancient Greece, and was clearly expounded by 19th century atheist philosophers such as Ludwig Feuerbach.[2]

There. Is there anything else you'd like me to do for you? Would you like the sky slightly more blue in your world? I can do that. 

Gnu.

PS See the talkpage for the discussion on the attribution.

PPS Yes, it's a slow day at the office...

[screwtape]

Interesting - the RationalWiki article on SPAG credits a Vince Skolny with the origin of the term.

But the article cited as proof of that dates to 2009 - whereas DTE's post is Feb 2007.

Does DTE claim authorship of the phrase? Or is he Skolny?

I'm going to ask RationalWiki about it...

I dunno.

[xphobe]

The RationalWiki article on SPAG now starts off:

Thank you!  My record for never having edited a wiki page remains intact.  Whew, that was close.

You're a better man than I, Gnuga Dni. Up-arrow to you, good sir.

[Gnu Ordure]

No worries, Xphobe.

I see that Rationalwiki also have an article on WWGHA, which is nice. Who wrote that, I wonder?

I edited that as well, to add the line about Brain being the author.

And I used the word edutainment for the first and hopefully the last time in my life - my excuse being that that's the term used in the HowStuffWorks wiki article. Never again, I promise.

[xphobe]

And I used the word edutainment for the first and hopefully the last time in my life - my excuse being that that's the term used in the HowStuffWorks wiki article. Never again, I promise.

Promises, promises.  Next time you'll use its counterpart "infocation"!   (or is that "entermation"?)

[Jim]

Yes, DTE is Skolny.  He had a blog, but it looks like he let it go....

[Gnu Ordure]

Really, Jim?

How do you know?

[screwtape]

(anyone know if DTE is married?)

I recall him saying he was.

Somehow I can't feature DTE in real life as some kind of motivational self-help guru, but who knows.

After leaving the field of theology I recall him saying he was in sales for a while.  Then I think he said something about doing public speaking stuff. If you are really interested, you could search his posts in the old forum.  www.whywontgodhealamputees.com/forum.  The redirect page lets you select old or new forum.  Select Old.  Then use the search, if it works.  I haven't figured out all the rules on how to find stuff or access profiles in the old forum.  But occasionally, I do.

(unless you count Davedave's invasion of the Reason Project).

I'm pretty sure he also had something to do with Chernobyl.

And/or you could ask Vince Skony about it.
http://www.squidoo.com/vince-skolny

The first article on that page is entitled "Shaving God", which is also an essay DTE first posted at ATT.  I don't have the link and I'm too lazy to look it up. But I think that adds to the evidence that Skolny = DTE.  Does not look anything like I imagined.

[Gnu Ordure]

Well, this is odd, but not impossible. I did consider the possibility that they were the same person (in post 8 ), but as Graybeard said, the writing styles are very different, and there's a two and a half year gap between the first usages...

I've e-mailed DTE about it.

[Jim]

Really, Jim?

How do you know?

Back in the day we had exchanged a few PM's.  I found out then.  And, then when he started up his own blog and began posting on other blogs, I was reminded.

[Gnu Ordure]

^^^ Fair enough, Jim. I've re-edited the article.

Excuse me, I must take a shower, my face appears to be covered in an eggy-type substance.

[Jim]

Did he respond to your emails?

[screwtape]

^^^ Fair enough, Jim. I've re-edited the article.

Excuse me, I must take a shower, my face appears to be covered in an eggy-type substance.

Are you Elgdorf?

[Gnu Ordure]

I CAN'T HEAR YOU - I'M IN THE SHOWER...