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I might not have expressed myself in quite WildTurkey's terms, but I have to agree the level of intellectual honesty among most of the anti-evolution crowd here is not high. People feel free, for example, to claim that Dan Dennett called for instituting 'creationist concentration camps'; to extract out-of-context quotes with the goal of misrepresenting scientist's words, etc.. Upon having gross scientific errors pointed out to them, they simply turn around and post the same nonsense all over again. I think it was PH who wittily compared it to 'whack-a-mole'.

Having done a fair bit of ranting myself, out of frustration, I have to say that I most admire those posters here who manage to consistently ignore the insults and dishonesty and simply argue to the point. I won't name them, lest I leave any deserving individuals out.

But I will note that my opinion of fundamentalist Christians in general has been greatly lowered by my experiences in these threads. More broadly, until a couple of years ago, I tended to discount the differences between social and libertarian conservatives. Now I worry whether the Republican coalition can survive the wave of fundie triumphalism that followed Dubya's re-election. And I'm going to think very hard before I again mark a ballot for a Christian conservative, particularly if there's also a Libertarian running.

My last experience with a _______ was a co-worker that ran for state assemblyman. I worked to help get him elected and then discussed how my services could be used (as a volunteer). Although we agreed on 99.99% he applied the 0.01% litmus test and said my "services would not be appreciated" even though I had said I would never work to oppose his 0.01% issue and would refer any inquiries in that matter to whomever he wished to handle them.

He was defeated in the next election. Seems he let his 0.01% override the big picture. Particulary how to handle that and a full-time job also.

But I will note that my opinion of fundamentalist Christians in general has been greatly lowered by my experiences in these threads.

It was a few days ago that I posted that I was frustrated with continually dealing with the repeated lies and thus I started venting my frustration by requesting that they live up to Christian principles. My bad.

I can relate, guys. There are days I'd rather be having a root canal, than listen to some of these disputes. Still I imagine folks just try to do the best they can. And if there's any "blame" to spread around, it seems to me it's not exclusively to just one side of the debate. FWIW.

And Jeff, unfortunately successful "debunking" is often in the eye of the beholder. And I think we all have our blind spots. I guess that's just human nature.

Thank you RWP and JA for writing!