(May 31, 2013 at 2:46 pm)meak Wrote: I don't align myself with either side of the debate but I can say that the more kindly you talk to people, the more they'll listen.
That depends on the person. I don't think that there is one approach that is effective with everyone. If you are gentle it may simply prompt the other person to assume that you're a pushover, and they'll respond aggressively. If they have a worthwhile point to make, they can make it regardless of how they are approached.
Since you're unlikely to find common ground with everyone even if you mix up your approaches, your best bet is to be yourself. That way you'll be more comfortable with the people who decide to engage with you, and you can dismiss those who won't. It's a discussion forum; not being friends with everyone is only a problem if you want it to be.
"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
