A while back I informed the readers that I get a fair numbers of creationists (and incoherent religionists) trying to post here, and I often simply delete the comments, not allowing them to go up. A few people, as I recall, said, “Why not post them? It gives us a chance to argue about creationism/religion.”
Just to show you why I deep-six many of these, here’s one I got a few minutes ago; I’ve left all the (inevitable) errors in:
robin ward commented on Bill Nye talks about his upcoming debate with Ken Ham
Hubble has disproved evolution ,
EVIDENCE proves evolution is a joke ( SSHOW ME JUST one TRANSITIONAL FORM)
Darwins brother George, a professor of math AT cAMBRIDGE, disproved evolutionMY UNCLE , A BOTANIST DIS-PROVED EVOLUTION –not once did he plant an apple seed and have a pear tree emerge; along with John Chapman proving apples will always be apples
How much more ‘TIME’ do evolutionists need to explain their THEORY?
In school 65 years ago , the universe was estimated to be 50M years old .To-day it has “aged” to be 45 BILLION+ years? how old will it be in another 65 years?
Now do you really want me to post comments like that? There is, of course, no possibility of changing “robin’s” mind, so the only reason to post this would be to either show the lunacy of creationists, or have the commenters use this person as a chew toy.
Well, such comments are good for a laugh, made me chuckle a bit after a hard day.
I agree with everything you wrote, Mr Coyne, except your choice of quoatations at the end on “robin’s” rather than “mind!”
Deep-six them, I say. They’re only funny in so many forms and for so long. Debating this is a waste of time, and shooting fish in a barrel can only entertain so much.
Your website is much better off without this kind of drivel.
In lieu of allowing comments like this, every so often you might have a “creationist comment contest” …prize goes to the best parody. Your readers could submit their entries in the comment box (i.e., their collection of nouns, verbs, mixed lowercase/capital lettered words, inchoate thoughts, delusions, etc.) and submissions would be judged on originality, brevity, and humor.
Those contests are fun. The Dear Evolution one was a hoot!