three4jump

Well, good luck to all of you in battling the darkness. I agree with your aim that we should keep creationism out of grade schools, but I just hate to see so many intelligent people wasting their breath. I suppose it's true, as scigirl has pointed out before, that lurkers may get an education even if the creationists are immune to reason. I hope so.

Another problem with debating creationists here is that it's eating up all the bandwidth. There's so much interesting news in evolution, but the number one topic of discusion here is some idiot named randman. It's very disappointing that he has hijacked your forum with his blatant stupidity.

CardinalMan

To those with a scientific background and a well-developed sense of critical thinking, this is true. However, few people are so equipped. I've spent the last week in my home state of Ohio around my extended family, and it scares me how quickly they form opinions about the Intelligent Design debate without any information. This includes a public school teacher.

By arguing against YEC, you open yourself to the criticism that you mention (making it look like there is something substantial to debate). However, by refusing to argue against YEC, you open yourself up to criticism that you are close-minded, have something to hide, and are unwilling to allow a new and different view into discussion because of some scientific conspiracy. Either way, there are serious disadvantages. I personally think that the latter is more harmful, and by engaging in debate, scientists foster the view that they form a vibrant and open-minded community that dislikes YEC because of the evidence, not because they fail to give it a fair chance.

CardinalMan

Coragyps

I know that I'm guilty of it, too, but for just that reason alone we should all try to be civil when debating. The question of when it's debate and when it's just a shouting match depends, of course, on the participants' tolerance for trolling/willful ignorance/blind stupidity from the other side - but name-calling doesn't accomplish much. Maybe if the science side would always wait to be called "satanists" before calling the other side "inbred shitbiscuits"...

Jamie_L

Because their motives are not scientific or philosophical. Their motives are to have their religion taught as truth to impressionable young minds, even when it conflicts with scientific fact.

They invent other motives to make an end-run around Constitutionality and sway the masses to their side.

It's just like posting IGWT in the schools. The motive is not patriotism, no matter what anyone says. The motive is to post the word "God" in schools.

Jamie