Reflectorites
On Sat, 21 Oct 2000 10:23:43 +0100, Richard Wein wrote:
[...]
>SJ>My recommendation is not to bite and in the end they look bad. There are a
>>lot of uncommitted lurkers on this List and they can see which side
>>presents the evidence and which side mostly just insults and intimidates.
RW>Stephen has several times referred to these mysterious uncommitted lurkers.
>I rather doubt whether they exist, but I would be interested to know if they
>do.
It is a simple fact that there are, on average, about 100 subscribers to this
List. The last time I did a "who evolution" check with Majordomo in
August there were in fact 99 subscribers to it. Richard can check for
himself by sending a message to <Majordomo@lists.calvin.edu> with the
words:
who evolution
in the body of the message.
Yet only about 10% of that number regularly post. Maybe another 10%
have posted irregularly. So it seems a reasonable assumption that, of that
~80% who don't post, some of them (if not most of them), would be
uncommitted.
RW>It would give some purpose to the debate here. Without an uncommitted
>audience the debate is futile, as creationists/IDers are not open to
>rational argument, and evolutionists are not going to be influenced by the
>irrational arguments of the creationists/IDers.
I presume a major problem is the personal abuse, putting down, and
intimidation that issues mainly from the Evolution side. Very few people
would have the courage to submit to that.
I personally have developed a thick skin now, but when I started I was
*shocked* by the ridicule and abuse that mostly emanated from the Evolution
side.
What was particularly shocking was that the worst offenders were those
evolutionists who claimed to be *Christians*.
RW>So, all you uncommitted lurkers out there, if you exist, please speak up and
>make yourselves known.
I note that a couple have, but clearly a decisive test of "uncommitted
lurkers" is not that they *all* reveal themselves at Richard's command!
Steve
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Stephen E. (Steve) Jones ,--_|\ Email: sejones@iinet.net.au
3 Hawker Avenue / Oz \ Web: http://www.iinet.net.au/~sejones
Warwick 6024 -> *_,--\_/ Phone: +61 8 9448 7439
Perth, Western Australia v "Test everything." (1 Thess. 5:21)
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