You may have a point, but I DO have a sense of humour!!

Bill

On 2 Feb 2007, at 19:59, Dr Laurie Miles wrote:

> Fascinating!
> Why is it certain topics evoke such vigorous and vehement  
> opposition form
> certain people. And why is it those “opponents” often are the same  
> people in
> each of the different arguments?
>
> e.g.
> -Creationism (or simply repudiating Darwinian theory) vs Darwin
> -Microsoft vs Open Source software (although the latter proponents  
> usually feel
> that another proprietary software company is OK – Apple)
>
> My observations would be that the “opponents” usually have a lot  
> less humour in
> their arguments, a lot less balance in their arguments, and usually  
> show no
> evidence of really listening to what the other side is saying. The  
> other side
> eventually give up trying to discuss the matter, under the sheer  
> weight of
> e-mails pouring into their mailboxes. The opponents seem to enjoy  
> the arguments,
> and never concede any points to their opponents. And the opponents  
> are usually
> male.
>
> Somewhere in the middle will be genuinely interested parties (most  
> females will
> be in this group), who will make an occasional comment or question  
> that is
> unfortunately swamped in the rapid interchange of e-mails between the
> protagonists and their opponents. Some of these “middle” people  
> will helpfully
> try to interject some humour to attempt to defuse what can rapidly  
> become a
> flame war.
>
> I have absolutely no evidence for any of the above, apart from my own
> observations of various mail lists over the years.
>
> I look forward to being shot down in flames…
>
> Laurie Miles
>
> ________________________________________
> From: GP-UK [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Clegg
> Sent: 02 February 2007 7:08 pm
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [GP-UK] Action against climate change
>
> Some days, just some days, not many mind you, I wish I was as  
> clever as you
> Midge.
> On 02/02/07, Adrian Midgley < [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> John Clegg wrote:
>> Adaptation - survival of the fittest - certainly occurs, and is what
>> you describe. However, true evolutionary theory requires this process
>> to produce a genetically distinct being. How?? Mutation of many genes
>> all at once?? Why?
>
> Oh good grief!
> This is a typical mis-statement of speciation.
>
> On another note, Icedove (Thunderbird's derivative on Debian Linux),
> regards each of John's postings as "junk".  The Bayesian filter of  
> course.
>
>
>
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