Quoting others is for stupid people

[frosty]

I get what the OP says. Religious people do it on religious forums, Atheists on Atheist forums. You know, get a pic, edit your profile info, put a quote expressing your idea of life from a famous dead (or alive) person in your sig, and there you go. In my view I see that as people trying to establish themselves by drawing the line in the sand by saying "this is me, this is who I am and what I believe, here I am". I think Atheists should, for the sake of consistency, try to avoid things like that most of the time because if you want to set an example and be different from the people you oppose, doing exactly what they do is not a good place to start. Anyways, that's just what I think, and I cannot nor do I want to tell people what to do.

[Hydra009]

I get what the OP says. Religious people do it on religious forums, Atheists on Atheist forums. You know, get a pic, edit your profile info, put a quote expressing your idea of life from a famous dead (or alive) person in your sig, and there you go. In my view I see that as people trying to establish themselves by drawing the line in the sand by saying "this is me, this is who I am and what I believe, here I am". I think Atheists should, for the sake of consistency, try to avoid things like that most of the time because if you want to set an example and be different from the people you oppose, doing exactly what they do is not a good place to start.

Atheists shouldn't use quotes because theists use quotes?   :-k :-?

[frosty]

I get what the OP says. Religious people do it on religious forums, Atheists on Atheist forums. You know, get a pic, edit your profile info, put a quote expressing your idea of life from a famous dead (or alive) person in your sig, and there you go. In my view I see that as people trying to establish themselves by drawing the line in the sand by saying "this is me, this is who I am and what I believe, here I am". I think Atheists should, for the sake of consistency, try to avoid things like that most of the time because if you want to set an example and be different from the people you oppose, doing exactly what they do is not a good place to start.

Atheists shouldn't use quotes because theists use quotes?   :-k :-?

I really don't think I should have to clarify this, but I was focusing on the tribalistic aspect of the whole "us vs them" mentality. Just because theists compartmentalize themselves and make it very clear what they believe and try to brand themselves it does not mean that Atheists should return the favor and copy their behavior. In that sense when Atheists do that they are, in a way, making Atheism "another belief", "just another religion", or whatever term you want to use to obscure the raw fact that Atheism is simply a lack of a belief in a deity(ies) and nothing more.

[PickelledEggs]

"I like quotes, I use them all the time." - Pickelledeggs

  No, seriously. I like quotes. Sometimes I like the way someone else got something across because of it's wording, or the rhythm of they way they said it. Not to steal thier thoughts, but because it reflects my thoughts already. Why do more work and think of new ways to say what has already been said?

[Sal1981]

"I like quotes, I use them all the time." - Pickelledeggs

  No, seriously. I like quotes. Sometimes I like the way someone else got something across because of it's wording, or the rhythm of they way they said it. Not to steal thier thoughts, but because it reflects my thoughts already. Why do more work and think of new ways to say what has already been said?

This.

No need to "invent the wheel more than once". When someone else has already made a good argument, why not use it?

[mediumaevum]

I think I need to clarify what I meant:

Of course there is no problem in quoting others if you do so to say "other people already said that" as in:

"That topic has already been discussed".

The problem arise when people are quoting others without refering to the historical context.
Without the historical context, you miss the way on how you got to that conclusion.

If the historical context is somewhat different from the current context, the quote basically becomes meaningless.

[Solomon Zorn]

"I like quotes, I use them all the time." - Pickelledeggs

  No, seriously. I like quotes. Sometimes I like the way someone else got something across because of it's wording, or the rhythm of they way they said it. Not to steal thier thoughts, but because it reflects my thoughts already. Why do more work and think of new ways to say what has already been said?

This is pretty much what I would have said. That's why I quote him. And to acknowledge that someone has already articulated the same idea first, and although it's not relevant to an argument, it's nice to give recognition to people who beat you to the punch.

Plus it helps avoid redundancy.

[PickelledEggs]

I think I need to clarify what I meant:

Of course there is no problem in quoting others if you do so to say "other people already said that" as in:

"That topic has already been discussed".

The problem arise when people are quoting others without refering to the historical context.
Without the historical context, you miss the way on how you got to that conclusion.

If the historical context is somewhat different from the current context, the quote basically becomes meaningless.

There are plenty of times when quoting something is just downright stupid. Quoting the bible is one. Quoting famous people is sometimes another. Everyone quotes Marylin Monroe. Why? IDFK, but half the girls I know (that aren't putting bible quotes as their *insert social media* status) put that quote "If you can't handle me at my worst...." malarkey.

Really, the only time I find that it's a problem that certain things/people are quoted are: things like religious text with the purpose to teach how to live / to prove the text in a sort of circular logic and quoting famous people because just because they are famous, makes them an expert on life.