Re: Cobb County

Dear Ed,
Personally, I do not see any name calling on this list, but I must say that
I do not reply to any postings that obviously do not want to understand
what I am saying. I agree, that certain parts of what I wrote are never
answered. However, you should not forget that there are no scientists who
are specialists in every subject. The result is that the discussions are
often not on a scientific level, but just a short reply to one particular
person and the discussion is not getting any further. It would be better
that these people would carry on the discussion off the list.

Take your letter. I do not even know what you are talking about. It says
"Re: CobbCounty". I gave my opinion a long time ago, and got a few answers
to which I replied. However, if the replies are references to articles, I
do not look them up, because that is not a discussion. If there are one
line replies, I don't bother with them. Some people can and keep straight
what some one else says, I can't unless I keep all the postings under a
certain heading. But then you must keep them separate, and refer back to
them time and again. I don't have the time for that. Maybe my attitude is
not right, but it prevents that I post a message like you do.

Some years ago I posted a message stating that not all so-called
"scientists" are what I would call theoretical scientists. There are
practical "scientists", "engineers" who know how to build bridges etc., but
do not know how to interpret material that is being dug up from a depth of
50 feet. (I generalize a bit too much now.) For our denomination I have
been part of a committee that studied evolution and how it is taught. That
took years. After that, whenever I tried to give my opinion on certain
things, I found out, that it is impossible to reply in a few short
sentences. Often, to be understood, one has to give an essay of several
pages, to which another essay of several pages is replied. It is very
time-consuming, especially among Christians who want to live by the Bible.

For me the result has been, that I, too, may refer to work previously done,
rather than sit down to answer someone, who appears to have trouble
understanding what is being said. Maybe my attitude is wrong, but there
are subjects that can only be discussed at length by replying to "essays"
with another essay. I have nothing against that, but it is not necessarily
a discussion, which should be going on on the "asa" list. Though, maybe it
should. Those of us who are not interested use the "delete" button.

Since I did not read anything about Cobb county after I posted and saw the
replies, many of those not related to what I wrote I cannot judge about
hatefulness. Maybe so, maybe it is a misunderstanding. However, your
posting does not help, if the idea is to ask any questions, or state
opinions. That may be my shortcoming as well. Maybe you can send me a
private e-mail to tell me what is bothering you.

Jan de Koning

On the other hand, I do not think, that this forum is the best place to
find out what others say. Evolution and what belongs to it take years to
understand. And then it is only a superficial knowledge.
Received on Tue Jan 25 12:24:47 2005