This is at the website of Fox News: In creation-evolution debate America needs a Day of Listening. The author, Tim Stafford (that’s his page at Amazon), is: “an award-winning author, a regular contributor to Christianity Today and Campus Life magazines, and co-editor of The Student Bible.”

He mentions one of his books, The Adam Quest: Eleven Scientists Who Held on to a Strong Faith While Wrestling with the Mystery of Human Origins, which he says: “profiles scientists on all sides of the evolution-creation debate.” Then, skipping a bit, he tells us, with bold font added for emphasis:

Both sides of the creation-evolution debate want to lecture the other. And they do! The Internet has vastly increased the level of intemperance. Those who believe the Earth is old are astonished and outraged that some large percentage of Americans (the number varies depending on whose survey you believe) remains convinced the earth is young and that dinosaurs roamed our planet with Adam and Eve.

It is astonishing, but we’re used to it. Then, being even-handed, Stafford presents the other side:

Those who believe the Earth is young are equally outraged that creation scientists can’t get their papers published in mainstream science journals — and that their narrative of Earth’s history can’t even get a mention in science textbooks as an alternative theory.

Outrageous indeed! Let’s read on:

Both sides can (and do) give you an earful about the strong evidence for their position, and the shocking and willful ignorance of those who won’t listen. What I can’t find, anywhere, are people listening to each other.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Who wants to listen to Ken Ham, or any other young-Earther? For that matter, who wants to listen to the creationist old-Earthers at the Discovery Institute? Few people in this universe have poured over their arguments more than your humble Curmudgeon, and we have no desire to actually listen to them. We know what they have to say. Stafford continues:

I would like to propose, therefore, a Day of Listening. The format is simple. Those who care about issues of creation and evolution will seek out somebody on the other side and seek merely to understand.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Life is too short to waste a day like that. Here’s more:

I know there is small likelihood that issues of creation and evolution will be solved through such an exercise. It’s not even clear that people are capable of understanding each other on these complex issues.

Creationism is complex? BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Moving along:

One thing is clear to me, however: the righteousness of both sides is not getting us anywhere. People have been shouting across the barricades for decades, and nobody has budged an inch. It only makes people more angry.

Are we “righteous”? Sane would be a better adjective. Are we “angry”? Resolute is more like it. Another excerpt:

I know the objections. “We already know what they say, and they are wrong, wrong, wrong! Why should I waste time listening to them?” Interestingly, people on both sides say it.

Probably, but just because creationists say it doesn’t mean they understand what we’re saying, or that they want to. On with the article:

Maybe if they pulled back their vituperation and committed to a Day of Listening, they might make space for understanding.

Stafford is trying to be reasonable, but he doesn’t get it. We do understand the creationists. We also understand that they don’t have the first clue what science is all about, nor are they interested — they think it’s evil. We understand the situation rather well, and that’s why we know that dialogue with creationists is hopeless.

Stafford admits that he doesn’t hope for agreement, only understanding. What does that mean? Here’s how he finishes:

[T]he world was made, by whatever method and in whatever time frame. It’s done. We live in it! What matters much more than the method by which it was made is how we live in it together.

That’s very sweet. But it’s also meaningless. We assume that Stafford is an innocent in The Controversy between evolution and creationism. He has no understanding of The Infinite Evil of Creationism. But we know what drives The Controversy, and why it will probably never end. Science improves our lives, and Oogity Boogity suppresses knowledge and keeps us in ignorance so we’re more docile and easily ruled. We don’t need a Day of Listening; we need an age of freedom.

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