[yters]

Uh, have you read Plato's dialogues? The defining characteristic is that they aren't philosophical treatises, i.e. not pedantic monologues claiming all knowledge. Their whole point is to stimulate the reader to think for themselves on very interesting questions.

[dpapathanasiou]

Never ask a person of Greek descent if he's read Plato.

The very idea! ;)

[yters]

The Diogenes quotes are interesting, but don't they lampoon Neo Platonic thought more than Plato himself?

[create_account]

Irony: the "Intelligent Design" guy is talking about thinking for himself!

[yters]

So what happens if I am merely testing whether people care more about the quality of my comments, vs some ideology I may or may not buy into?

If this is going to be a better community than reddit, the way a person argues and supports their view should matter more than whether they happen to hold a controversial idea. For the most part I've been pretty impressed.