iano writes:
You mean like the controlled environment Percy set up? Where he can control the content and avoid challenge? EvC indeed.
You're right, iano. Percy did set up a controlled environment here at the Evolution verus Creation Forum, at least in the science threads: he required creationists to accept the evidentiary standards of science, to present solid, replicable evidence and sound logic in support of their views.
That, of course, has been a recipe for failure--creationist failure. The failure of creationists here at EvC mirrors their failure elsewhere:
there is no evidence or logic to support the creationist position. Nonetheless, Percy did the creationist camp a favor by muting the worst of their excesses.
Religion neither originated nor prospered via solid evidence or sound reason. Creationists can wax away on feelings of wonder and/or inadequacy, shame and guilt, appeals to consequences, tradition, lyric paeans to the lonely soul, etc.--but they cannot contest effectively in the arena of science and reason.
There are places at EvC where creationists can engage in discussions without the strictures placed on the scientific fora. In that regard, EvC is indeed open, far more open than religious institutions with their intolerance of secular perspectives. Go hang out at a creationist web site and see what happens to evolution supporters.
For some years now at EvC, creationists have attempted and failed to contest with science while measuring up to science's sharp (but fair) standards. We will never see the arrival of creationism's stellar scientific knights
because there are none. There are pretenders to the title, but they would never come here, where their arguments are permanently recorded and readily confronted by knowledgeable skeptics. They
will continue to make live podium appearances where they can talk fast, make a quick buck, and not look back--for they seek merely to discredit science among the unwary, not to match wits with it on a level field.
So I say, let's drop the pretense. Let's stop pretending that Uncle Creat is even
capable of making sense around the scientific dinner table. Let the creationists say whatever they like: let them damn us, lie to us, demean their own minds, make things up, fail to provide requested documentation...let creationists be creationists without limit.
We have tended to give more leeway to creationists than evolutionists here, and I say it's time to go whole hog: give them carte blanche to do their worst. Let's continue to hold their science-minded critics to the most exacting standards of reason, evidence, and civility.
More rope, sir?
Real things always push back.-William James
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