Jim Henderson <nos### [at] nospamcom> wrote:
> Nothing I can say will *ever* change his mind.  Hence, no point in 
> debating with him about it.  He's never going to see the reality of the 
> situation, because it contradicts his deeply held belief that the bible 
> is never wrong.  In his mind, the only way he agrees is if I agree with 
> him that everything I know to be factual is wrong.

This wouldn't be so bad if they just kept to themselves with their
world view. After all, everybody's free to believe whatever they want.

However, the problem is that many of them are trying to *force* their
belief system onto others, especially children, by lobbying the
government and other means. This is not something that we can just
ignore, like we can eg. with the Moon landing conspiracy theorists
(who are obnoxious but at least aren't trying to pass laws to enforce
their beliefs on others.)

I once had a long email conversation with a young-earth creationist
about the subject of honesty, and why most creationist arguments and
tactics are not. For example, I tried to explain to him why quote-mining
is a really dishonest tactic.

(The intellectually honest thing to do when you see an isolated quote
from eg. an evolutionary biologist that seems to go completely against
the theory of evolution is to ask yourself questions like: "Why is this
known biologist seemingly saying something against evolution? Is this
quote possibly taken out of context? What did this person mean by this?
Has he explained what he meant in the rest of the text, or in other texts?
Has he been asked about this and responded, and if so, what did he say
about it?" Then the honest person would try to find out and draw
conclusions only *after* he has all the facts. But no, this is not what
a creationist does. Instead, a creationist is extremely opportunistic:
The isolated quote seems to say something against evolution, and it's made
by a known scientist. To hell what he really meant by it and what else he
has said on the subject, just take the quote and use it as a weapon.
Intended meaning is not important, only the impression that the isolated
quote gives.)

However, no matter how I tried to explain this, it didn't seem to register.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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