Posted by Damien [24.159.250.195 - 24-159-250-195.jvl.wi.charter.com] on 23 February 2003 at 15.00.29 ZuluTime:

Okay, perhaps I'm the only one left who believes this, but I still think that Brenton is nothing but a very persistent troll. There's a couple points of evidence which I believe shows this to be true.

1) He goes out of his way to make obvious contradictions in his posts.
     Example: brenton_spears : but i will be harnessing all my gifts in singlemanded pursuit of the end of winning souls for christ....i wont be engaged in self-aggrandisement of any sort...such indeed is my manifesto...

This statement is quickly followed by...
      brenton_spears : if u knew the awe in which i am held by my peers ..the grim and ominous silences that descend on rooms i walk into....and the rapidity with which these silences descend...yea..then shall ye know the manner of the man with which you do have to do in me...

And...
      brenton_spears : if u knew how my football team regard me...the awe in which even superlatively physically conditioned men.....who are in the prime of their health and very near the peak of their physical powers...are apt to hold me...if you knew how they regard me.....

Now, Brenton has demonstrated before that he is smart enough to use a thesaurus and actually pick words that, although overly complicated and largely unneccesary, fit into his psuedo-arguments. I believe that someone who's smart enough to do this is also smart enough to realize the blatent contradiction he made above.

2) Brenton constantly refers to his beliefs, heroes, faith, and personal attributes in a poetic, almost novelistic fashion.

Examples...
      brenton_spears : at a church camp i attended whitcomb was a speaker...at that time i wasnt a committed christian yet...and so i had all sorts of questions about the faith..not irreverent ones....to be sure.,.but questions which suggested to whitcomb that i was very precocious...

brenton_spears : only one man can deal with gremlin and slipknot combined...only one man can withstand gremlin';s powerful onslaught.....and give as good as he gets.....that's me..cos like gremlin i have an impressive array of intellectual defenses...a formidable intellectual arsenal...and just like gremlin too....i have a way of bolstering my argument with rhetoric of the incendiary kind which slipknot is adept at purveying through their music

brenton_spears : anybody can claim the ability to challenge anyone else...the just about everybody would possess such an ability....the relevant question is: do u have the ability to mount a challenge against the likes of gremlin successfully?...and i submit that i do

Now, I'm not a psychologist, but I don't think most 'normal' people talk about themselves that way. The style in which he builds himself up either represents deliberate dishonesty, which he feels he should cover up in poetic language; Or a severe mental problem, which I think we can rule out due to the consistency of his opinions and attitudes (Yes, they're consistently ill-founded, moronic, and asinine, but they're still consistent).

3) He has a habit of suddenly acting incredibly childish in the middle of a debate.

Examples...
     brenton_spears : I HAEV PREVAILED O ROOM OVER INDON,,,'
     brenton_spears: anyway i dont think i could make u cry hunter....youre not a crybaby..and dmien....please u werent here to witness my trouncing of indon...im too tired for an encore performance....but i relayed the gist of it to some of my rew and they were all of the unanimous opinion that i acquitted myself very well, having sucessfully mounted a case for the christian position as opposed to indon's position
     brenton_spears :you guys are so obtuse....words fail me..
     brenton_spears :and hunter you dont get to call anyone a moron until u learn to spell 'counsel'
      brenton_spears :get real morons.....look and the exchange and get a clue..

Here we see a strange side of Brenton. While most of his posts attempt to show his 'great respect' for his 'worthy opponents', these seem to display the exact opposite, a condescending, childish 'I win' attitude that differs quite wildly from his normal posts.

4) His spelling and grammar are inconsistently atrocious.

Examples...

brenton_spears :so tell me what is the proper british expression for it..i challenge u to tell me that???.
      brenton_spears :there's no english word for lawyer apart from lawyer..i suppose attorney would qualify....it is true that the functions of a solicitor and advocate didnt used to be fulfilled by the same lawyer...but thwt was before
     brenton_spears :the holy theologians will teach u
      brenton_spears :please hunter listen to terry and get a clue
      brenton_spears :instead of creating a christian web-site theyre devoting their energies to advocating their pathetic atheistic philosophy to the whole world......i dare say...that greamlin may even have inspired slipknot...

As you can see, despite his liberal sprinkling of words that most people with less than a high school education would have to look up, he doesn't seem to care enough to A)Check his spelling of more mundane words, B)Actually spell out words such as 'u', C)Capitalize proper nowns, such as names, 'I' etc., D)Put apostrophes on contracted words and possessive nouns and pronouns, 'you're', 'can't', 'they're' etc., and E)Put punctuation at the end of his sentences. Curiously enough, this poor spelling and grammar only appears on his shorter posts and not his more long-winded ones. And even more unusual, he doesn't capitalize the names of the people he claims to hold in the highest esteem, Jesus, Aquinas, Mary, etc.

5) He doesn't want to be quoted.

Examples...

brenton_spears :since obviously certain of my statements have been displayed on a web-site which i do not endorse....thereby giving me a public presence that i am leery of, my hour not having as yet come....
     brenton_spears :since certain statements of mine have without my permission been transcribed onto the forum of an ungodly web-site...and since this is likely to confer upon me a publicity that i have studiously sought to avoid....i feel that my only recourse to seeking and obtaining redress on this score could be had through permitting some of my friends to engage you in debate alongside myself...so that is what i have done...
     brenton_spears : i mean u can paraphrase yeah...ok..but dont quote me directly...i mean u could bump into a friend and say yeah this guy grent blew me away with what he said..he is awesome...and that sort of stuff..but no direct quoting if at all possible please..

Seems that our 'humble' Brenton does not want any paper trail leading to his name.