Creationists, IDers, etc., make me angry. Why? Because anyone who refuses to look at evidence makes me angry.

I see two classes of people (not all people are in one or the other): Those Who Are Always Right and Those Who Are Never Wrong.

Jay, as an example, is a Person Who Is Always Right. Now, I'm sure he'd correct me about that and say that he isn't, but here's why I include him in the category.

If Jay tells you something is true, he has evidence for it. He can tell you why it's true--or, when there is no "why" available, what shows it to be true. On those occasions when he is wrong (and despite the category titles, people in both categories are, sometimes--or, in some cases of the latter category, frequently), he will admit it. Jay's not the only person on this board in this category, but he's certainly the best-known aside from Phil and Fraser, and using either of them as my example wouldn't be fair to the other.

My boyfriend's brother, and most creationists of my experience, are Never Wrong. Or, from a more objective perspective, they just won't ever admit it. In fact, my boyfriend's brother is wrong a lot, and even when he doesn't know the subject terribly well and I do, he won't admit that he's wrong about it. As an example, he was arguing some point of Elizabethan English weaponry with me. Now, weaponry's not my strong suit, but Elizabethan England is. However, some friend of his who studies Japan of the same era told him something about Elizabethan weapons, and that was obviously right over what I'd read in three books.

This enfuriates me. I shouldn't let it get to me, and I'm pretty sure the fact that I do has something or other to do with the manic depression/other emotional issues, but it makes me very angry indeed. In order to avoid the emotional entanglement, I now ask what evidence a creationist would accept to show evolution's validity before I'll discuss it with them. Usually, I don't end up discussing it.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"