(May 30, 2013 at 3:59 pm)Gilgamesh Wrote: Isn't it more satisfying to be calm and polite in the face of adversity, though?
Sometimes it is. If you know you're dealing with a person who just seems interested in flaming and tossing insults, taking the dry, direct approach can make them feel awkward. If it doesn't, then your only choices are to engage in a pointless flame fest or walk away. I tend to prefer the latter; too many worthwhile conversations to be had with people who aren't a waste of time.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
