[–] Enigmius1 1 point 3 points 4 points (+4|-1) ago
If this had been a site that sprung up seeking donations, I'd be calling bullshit. John Bain does not need money. This is a man who sponsored an MLG team, whose passive Youtube views alone (ie. views on old videos that are not promoted in any way or anywhere near as relevant as they once were) generate more than enough to support his family for years to come, and who spends more on graphics cards in a year than most people spend on all PC hardware in a decade.
If you're not so far along in your spiritual journey that you can't respect the views of others and acknowledge their potential relevance then that's fine. There's no need for the downvotes on this thread or the negative attitudes here. That's the domain of amateur atheists who think their enthusiasm for cutting down religion stems from a place of righteousness. It doesn't. It comes from insecurity and fear. You don't need to take it out on TB.
[–] SkepticalMartian 3 points -3 points 0 points (+0|-3) ago
The old "you don't agree with my spiritual views, so you're not very enlightened" argument. Do you not see the conflict between telling people to keep an open mind while simultaneously telling them they're unqualified to comment?
I honestly expected better from you.
[–] VSXD [S] 1 point 2 points 3 points (+3|-1) ago
thank you. seriously if I could take the bullet for TB in this case I probably would. He's more important than i'll ever be. I wasn't trying to promote any praying nonsense, just thought it's a good site and something that should matter to gamers everywhere. I like to think that TB has the loudest voice when it comes to legitimate criticisms about the absolute shit game developers have been pushing at us and getting away with for far too long. We really do need more people like him, not fewer.
[–] Enigmius1 0 points 2 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago
I'm actually kind of the opposite. (tl;dr warning: I'm not offering the incoming critique to be an asshole, just to share my point of view even though I wish nothing but the best for him in his fight against this illness.)
I think he's done as much harm to games media as good. I think he's one of the most arrogant and narrow minded gaming personalities on Youtube. I'll never forget being mocked in annotations because I found 20 minutes devoted to the options menu in every 'review' to be outrageously pointless. (He wasn't mocking specifically me, of course, just taking general shots at the intelligence of people who didn't find an episodic featurette of the graphics options to be a useful thing to have to sit through if they were wanting to get to the review of the gameplay.)
I have a profound dislike for "first impressions" videos. Especially first impressions videos from someone who isn't a particularly apt gamer. Even I have referred to TB as a game reviewer in the past because it's a convenient moniker but he's not a reviewer. All he does are first impressions videos and editorials, and a first impression video is not a review.
I even find his figures of speech to be grating. You could get yourself a dangerous case of alcohol poisoning if you took a shot for every time he says "by any stretch of the imagination" in a given video, and every time I hear him say "issue" (hard 's', like 'hiss') I feel a pang of irritation.
He acts like he's the flagship gaming talent with Maker Studios/Polaris, he has in the past taken credit for "discovering" the Yogscast, and he gets himself in trouble in a lot of his business dealings because he doesn't realize that if he's not present and/or involved in something, nobody wants his opinion. (He took a lot of flak, mostly deserved, for weighing in on the long ago debacle between Notch and the Yogscast when he wasn't there, he had only the most basic information to go on, and it had absolutely nothing to do with him.)
Through all that criticism, however, I try to keep a healthy perspective and remember that his struggles, mistakes, and disparate opinions in his professional life don't reflect on (much less diminish) his role as a husband, a father, and just in general a guy trying to get some enjoyment out of life. For that reason, which is really the only one that matters, I can get behind some supportive gestures and I'm truly pulling for him and hoping that he can either beat this thing or fight his way clear to more time to spend with his family.
[–] Sragwaven 0 points 4 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago
It's a lovely sentiment, but I'd rather donate money for treatment, or something. It feels so final, like he's already a dead man to start just praying to me. I'd rather start physically doing something to help him become one of the "outliers" as he says who live more than a few years. When it comes down to it, I want to encourage him directly.
[–] Hate-Sponge 1 point 5 points 6 points (+6|-1) ago
Your heart is in the right place but prayer is useless.
[–] SkepticalMartian 4 points -1 points 3 points (+3|-4) ago (edited ago)
Prayer is the least effective thing you could do for him. I could do nothing and it would have just as much impact.
Instead of relying on "magic" to help, why not think of something more practical to do for him?
[–] Enigmius1 2 points 2 points 4 points (+4|-2) ago
That's not true at all. At the end of the day, an agnostic such as myself respects the benefits of spirituality and the rituals that form around it even if I don't believe that the explicit process is doing what believers claim it to be doing. The impact of spirituality on emotional and mental health is far greater than revolutionary atheists gave it credit for, and the impact of mental and emotional health on physical health is generally regarded as significant and irrefutable even if the science can't map it out just yet.
In other words, if you believe prayer matters and you know people are praying for you, it can absolutely lead to improved health.
We don't need to turn every mention of prayer, God, or a particular religion into a soapbox to tell everyone who supports a religious view that they're wrong and their beliefs are meaningless.
[–] SkepticalMartian 2 points 0 points 2 points (+2|-2) ago (edited ago)
It has nothing to do with whether or not I believe in God or my degree of spirituality. This has been studied ad nauseam by science.
Prayer when used by an individual may have some degree of physiological benefit for that individual, in the same way meditation may have some degree of physiological impact. However, other people praying for you is entirely worthless from a medical perspective. It is in fact a waste of time and effort to peruse such an idea with the notion that it will have any real benefit. It's only making you feel better by way of thinking that you did something useful, when in reality that is simply a lie you're telling yourself.
If the goal of this is to just show support, a more constructive and universally accepted method is to send him a "get well" note or card. This is completely religion-neutral, and it's a tangible token of appreciation for the man and his work that he can actually quantify.