Hi Randman,
Before I address your post, let me ask again if you would be so kind as to give Carico a hand in the
explaining common ancestry thread. This is from
Message 113:
Carico writes:
And again, for the umpteenth time, since apes and humans cannot breed with each other, they are different species.
Though no one has done so, Carico seems to believe that it is being repeatedly claimed that apes and humans can breed with each other. Naturally this makes no sense, since apes are a superfamily, not a species, and humans (along with gorillas and chimpanzees) are a type of ape. It would be appreciated if a fellow creationist could help him out with understanding the biological classification system.
Now, responding to your post:
randman writes:
Percy, try looking at this from the other side for a bit. You guys misrepresent and say the most outlandish and childish things about your critics, and then if you barely begin to act decently and engage the discussion honestly, you expect to be rewarded as if you bend over backwards.
The nature of the debate is that both sides perceive the other as making misrepresentations, making outlandish claims and becoming personal. After years of observing creation/evolution discussions devolve into name calling and recriminations, I started EvC Forum with the goal of creating a moderated venue where personal animosities had to be set aside at risk of suspension. The
Forum Guidelines here at EvC Forum, which I wrote, were specifically designed to make possible civil debate.
The other means by which I hoped to achieve this goal was the appointment of moderators from both sides of the debate. Recruiting creationist moderators has proved difficult, and finding ones who actually moderate instead of imitating wall flowers is even more difficult. It was hoped that you would bring the same energy and activism that you bring to discussion to your moderating.
What you have instead brought is a tepid level of moderating and a new high in the abuse of the
Forum Guidelines. Look at the title of this message. Who placed "idiocy" in the title? Who placed "buffoon" in another message title? Who keeps calling people liars? You're even the reason that the word "liar" is now represented by asterisks, along with Haeckel. You can't seem to stop from calling people liars, and you can't seem to refrain from turning threads into discussions of Haeckel. You're a walking poster board for the stereotypical abusive bulletin board denizen.
EvC Forum is intended for civil discussion. Its goal is to bring light to the debate, not heat. Please do your part to make this possible. That means moderating threads so as to call attention to evolutionist misbehavior with regard to the
Forum Guidelines. And it means setting a good example for others when engaged in discussion by following the
Forum Guidelines instead of violating as many as you can.
Remember, you appear as bad to evolutionists as they do to you. The only way to have productive discussion is if everyone focuses on the topics of discussion and not on what they perceive as the foibles of their opponents. In particular, I'm asking you to follow rule 10 of the
Forum Guidelines:
- Always treat other members with respect. Argue the position, not the person. Avoid abusive, harassing and invasive behavior. Avoid needling, hectoring and goading tactics.
--Percy