And Now A Message From Quality Assurance

Had to turn on comment moderation thanks to some drive-by blipverting last night. As a longtime mod I don't imagine they'll work all that much differently than a moderation queue at a forum. You make your comment and I have to come along and approve it before anyone else can see it. For me it'll be just like old times. However, it is an added step that I'd rather do without. Sorry for the inconvenience but links are what makes the internet run. And that means they're important. So, I don't want my blog to be used to link to anything I don't personally approve of and, therefore, reserve the right to delete any and all comments advertising sites or services that I don't recommend.

Or, you know, that I find poorly written.

Or contains the word "purple".

I don't really have to have a reason to delete any comment is what I'm saying and I can do it whenever I want.

I do try to be reasonable and let other people have their say, of course, and I think my track record as a blogger and a moderator on countless forums shows that I don't break out the delete stick unless it's warranted.

So, I wouldn't worry too much unless you're just posting a link to a site. If you happen to mention one while you're trying to engage in the ongoing conversation, great. But if all you're doing is coming here to boost your traffic, well, better throw yourself a pity party because I won't. If you want me to link to well, anything, really, feel free to contact me and ask. I'll be happy to, but I'll want to check things before I pass it along on the off-chance it might be objectionable to me or to my readers.

If you don't get my permission first, things like the following unpleasantness can happen to you.

You see, I have been involved on forums and sites where the great, teaming unwashed masses of the general public have come to grace the world and their fellows with their wit and erudition. I know the rules of the game, so to speak, even the ones that don't often get written down. I've talked about how to handle things and thought about it and researched it. Not because I was ever paid to do so, mind, but because as someone who was a moderator I thought it was my responsibility to do the best for the people who's lives I affected. Just as a deeply and humbly spiritual person I feel it's my responsibility to do the same for anyone I meet. I'm only one person, of course, and I can only do so much, but I can't do anything less than that and still look at myself in the mirror.

So, I know the thing to do here is to just ignore things. Be transparent, let the audience know what's going on and that the staff (ie little ole me) is on top of and in control of the situation. Let any flames or trolls or trouble flare out as you deprive them of oxygen and attention. Don't link to them, don't encourage them, don't play along with them – stay above the fray. Address legitimate concerns and grievances. Listen to people. Consider the feelings of everyone involved and try to find some solution that leaves the fewest people unhappy. Everyone's right an no one party is correct. And the important thing is not to overreact and make things even worse than they are. It's hard and everyone's human so things will get under your skin sometimes but that's when you need to realize you're not alone – there's a whole team of people helping you, one way or another – so take a break and calm down while they handle things. I've taught such things. I've counciled such things. And I've even tried to practice them.

Of course, I also know that sometimes you've got to throw the rulebook out of the window.

And crack some motherfucking skulls.

See, last night someone anonymously posted to my blog about their new site – www.evolutioncult.com. Or .org. Or .info. Or dot anything, really, they seem to have registered just about every domain with that identifier that they could. They all point to the same place. Now, it seems pretty natural as my blog's called the “Cult of Evolution” and their site's called the “Evolution Cult”. A little bit of google searching for their own name and they'd have stumbled onto me, I'm sure. In fact, I've done so myself and the post that pops up (3^rd on the list, I'll add – pretty impressive considering I've only been in operation for about a month at this point.) is the exact same month-old one they commented on.

However, if you actually go to that site (which, don't, I'll spare you the effort) you'll see that the phrase “Cult of Evolution” is one they're not unfamiliar with. It's a particularly loaded phrase amongst a subset – a, thankfully, very small yet vocal subset – of those who happen to be critics of the scientific theory of evolution. Oh, and that google search I mentioned? You don't get it from “Evolution Cult”, you get it from “Cult of Evolution”. And, yes, it is a theory. So is this idea I have that if I fall from a very tall height I'm going to die. I don't exactly have any proof of this, mind, but I'm not exactly in a hurry to climb up to a skyscraper and prove myself wrong. There are, of course, other uses of the particular combination of letters that make up the word evolution. But I'm pretty sure the scientific one is the one in question here. And, make no doubt, if you go to that evolution cult site it will be in serious question.

It's, in my humble opinion, little more than a clearing house for Intelligent Design ideas and concepts. And, as with any hostile meme, a recruitment center. Like most good critics of the theory of evolution they use the language of science to make their arguments. And the language of science is a good one for criticism because it freely and readily admits that any theory could be wrong – that there is always some doubt. Because as cold and logical as it may seem science is a human instrument and nothing human is every perfect so, therefore, there must be some doubt to whether it's real or not.

That last sentence, by the way, is what someone with a little understanding of logic can do with such a language. Twist it, turn it in on itself, and make it loop around until it has nothing to do with logic. The site in question is full of such things. They're called psuedo-science. “Psuedo” by the way, is a fancy way of saying “fake”. So, trussed up in faulty logic and wrapped in a language almost but not quite unentirely like science, the site seems to be rational. And open-minded. Full of useful tips and and respectable authors with letters after their name writing serious essays about important things. But, don't be fooled, it's a logical trap designed not to persuade anyone with a healthy scientific background but those who have only a vague impression of what science should be. Thesis, counter-thesis, and synthesis – there's a starting point, someone raises an argument, and somehow everyone comes to agree on something.

How do I know about such things, you ask? Well, because I'm making one of my own. Not a logical trap per se because, believe me, I'm not a scientist. And I have no interest in evolution except as a governing metaphorical lens through which the world can be viewed. I am, however, a fanatic.

You act surprised, but it's true. I'm a person of strong beliefs – those beliefs just happen to include that my beliefs might, on occasion, be wrong. But I believe what I believe with a passion. And I'm no scientist but I can be a crusader. You see, I didn't happen to pick the name “Cult of Evolution” out of a hat. It was a deliberate choice on my part. And I was hoping for exactly what happened earlier this morning – someone to stroll by looking to pick a fight about evolution. It's a honeypot, in hacker's terms, designed to lure in the unwary by offering them the promise of easy pickings. This whole place is a twisted mirror image of the Evolution Cult (In, I'll add, more ways than one) because I'm not trying to impart my fanaticism on those who'll take up the cause, I'm trying to instill doubt in those who'll give me half a listen. Just, you know, as a side project.

What can I say? I like to think big. I'm just not ready because I'd hoped to learn to be a much stronger and persuasive writer by this point. I mean, I've gotten better, but not enough to single handedly put down the ridiculous arguments fronted by those who follow the creed of Intelligent Design. Because, really, I'm about all it should take. I'm not particularly smart, I'm not particularly intellectual, I'm not particularly educated, all I have is a willingness to listen to other people and an urge to seek consensus, but even I can see that intelligent design is a bunch of wishful thinking held together by hope and vitriol.

And I'm more than a bit hesitant to step into things with such a group because, well, idiots beat you by dragging you down to their level where they're much more experienced. These are, make no mistake, some very smart idiots. I'm nowhere near creative enough to come up with something as wonderfully satirical as the Flying Spaghetti Monster. I'm not even going to try. Oh, I'd like to, of course, because that's exactly the sort of mocking that makes me feel ideas like intelligent design aren't anywhere near as scary as they really are.

But, see, while I enjoy the Pastafarian movement, I'm not sure if it actually helps anything. Part of what drives these intelligent design people is a feeling of insecurity. They expect to be mocked and ridiculed and while it does make them angry it only validates their arguments – the same way that responding to a troll in a flame war makes their day – and confirms that everyone else is as unreasonable and unrational as they expect. It feeds their sense of resentment. Their anger. Their isolation and persecution. It, in so many words, plays right into their hands. And I'd suggest that there's probably a better way. I haven't quite found it yet, though, or I'd be using it now. So, instead, I'd like to get something off my chest. And, perhaps, explain just why this bothers me so much.

It's always bothered me that these sort of arguments resort so quickly to religion and to God. Because, like it or not, I am about as spiritual as the people who came up with the ideas that seem so antithetical to the religious. Which is to say, a lot. The scientist as a godless atheist is about as valid a stereotype as the ignorant bible thumping church goer. And I really wish that people so eager to refute the one could avoid reinforcing the other. But, no, whenever these arguments arise whether it's creationism or intelligent design or just a criticism of the very idea of evolution, it's not long before the religion card is played. Well, it's not going to work on me. Because if you want to talk faith, I'll talk faith. If you want to talk facts, I'll talk facts. And the fact is my god's better than yours. Because my god or gods or whatever it is that I happen to worship is, in fact, a private matter. It's not something that needs to be pushed out into the public square or validated in any way or form. My faith, my beliefs are strong enough that I don't need anyone else to tell me to believe in them. And I don't need to tell anyone to believe in them, either. Because, in no small part, what I believe is that spirituality is a private, individual journey. Other people can only guide you along the path that you and you alone can walk, they can't walk it for you. And that path leads to the almighty, however it is you might choose to define it, and ever deeper connection with something larger than an individual. Something greater than a single person. It's a beautiful, sacred, holy thing and I'm outraged that my faith can even be called into question because of what I believe. And absolutely chilled that it could even be related to the faith's of those doing the questioning. Sickened, really. Because another thing I've come to believe – on my own spiritual journey – is that these people's faith cheapens my own. Tarnishes it and covers it in the filth of their ignorance and their prejudice.

They push and they push and they provoke and push others to their own extremes. Then they act surprised when people start to tune out all their shouting and yelling. It confirms their worst fears – that they're wrong and small and all alone – and only drives them to yell that much harder. I don't know, maybe they think if they shout hard enough they'll drown out the emptiness in their own souls. The one they've filled with their own voice rather than the love of god. And I don't know where they get their religion from but in mine, we call that “doubt”.

The advocates of intelligent design are so caught up in their pride that they don't realize what they're doing. They're so concerned with saving everyone else's souls that they can't see the mote in their own eyes. I don't particularly care what they do with themselves. If they want to rot away into obsolescence while the rest of us move forward to solve problems that, you know, actually matter then so be it. It's sad but I don't try and tell other people what they should be doing with their lives. And I expect the same courtesy. My tolerance of other's is not acceptance. And it ends when their beliefs start harming my own and everyone else's. Because these people are headed back to the stone ages. They're headed the way of the dinosaur. Well, one of us is. If, of course, you believe in evolution or small changes leading up to something big over time. Which, well, anyone who knows their history or their religion, or their chemistry, or just about anything should see is a pretty intuitive and self-apparent concept. But in order to subvert the evidence that scientists have gathered to prove that such a concept isn't just intuitive but logical those who advocate intelligent design have co-opted and subverted the entire language of science. They cast into doubt that which shouldn't be for the basest of reasons because they, themselves, have no doubt that their actions are right. And they bring us all down into their muck with them by doing so. My country was founded on the idea that everyone should be free to believe what they believe in – whether they happened to be in the largest majority or the smallest minority. Each should be protected from the other and encouraged to develop and cherish their own beliefs. Free, at last, from the fear that their beliefs alone would tar them with any brush.

And this country is a great one. A guiding light, I believe, that shows the way to something braver and better not just for this nation but for the whole world. It's a nation founded on the ideas of rationality and enlightenment. Founded for the common benefit. That grew to great power thanks not only to the character of its people and their many co-existing faiths but also because of the industry and scientific drive to create, innovate, and invent. We used to be a nation, a people, who valued science and the idea of progress. And I'm not sure just where along the line we lost that driving force. But I do know that the chilling effect of those who question and corrupt the spirit of discovery with their own intellectual dishonesty isn't helping matters.

They are, to put it bluntly, destroying my country from the inside out. And anyone who destroys my country is my enemy. And I will do everything in my power to destroy them in kind. These are the sorts of people who think we're fighting some kind of culture war, after all. And they've just met a warrior for the other side. I'm only one person, of course, and I can only do so much but I'm going to do all I can.

And I don't fight fire with fire. I fight it with napalm.