I used to post a bit on www.evcforum.net, where people with the time and patience attempt to spoon-feed creationists with a smattering of basic physics, chemistry, biology and math. It was hard work, because rather than make any attempt to educate themselves they would expect to have everything explained to them, in full, whenever there was something that required logical thinking.

At first I used to think this was due to some deep-rooted desire to have all the facts, but as the questions got more and more surreal, I decided that they just stupid. Eventually I realised the truth was, that these people were so convinced they were right, and that their own view of the world so precious to them, that they couldn't handle any aspect of reality which impinged on it. The "Prove It!"s were a psychological defense: In their mind, if the poor sap arguing was either stumped on a subject ("Please provide a link to the precise chemical structure of the first PNA strand"), or simply gave up in fear of their own sanity ("I linked to that information in post 435... oh fuck it, I give up"), they could be sure that the Earth really was 6000 years old, because it hadn't been "proved" otherwise.

Creationists don't make good thinkers, as a rule: You won't find them reading books (other than the Bible), preferring to get their information from a collection of whack-job websites, whose arguments they reel off, with increasing surrealism, at the drop of a hat.

I stopped posting at EVC - for the moment, anyway - for two reasons: Firstly, I don't have the patience for that sort of pointless argument; secondly because the rest of us know what's actually happening. Reality is here for anyone to look at: Whether they choose to do so, or choose to get their information from another whack-job, is their problem, not mine.

Besides, in the US, you're allowed to believe whatever you you like, however detached it is from reality. And who am I to take away that right?