Open Letter to Whoever the Hell is Reading this Post:

(Hell with it. I've got to spend the money sometime. May as well be now.)

First off, a few scoldings:

MG and Emeryrooz - bad form. All posts must be in "Open Letter" form, and must be funny (the Amy Grant reference was nice, though). Sorry if that wasn't clear enough.

Second, we had probably establish a few more ground rules:

1) Any and all blanket statements, excepting this one, are exceedingly bad unless followed up with appropriate disclaimers. Any blanket statements not so followed will be subject to intense ridicule, or until my time runs out.

2) No challenges allowed (e.g., MG's "give me one piece of evidence that contradicts evolution. And I'll tell you what, if you do, I guarantee you a nobel prize. "). Chances are, if I followed up MG's challenge with something like, say, Michael Behe's Darwin's Black Box, I still wouldn't get a Nobel Prize, because Behe's arguments don't confirm to MG's standard of evidence. I seriously doubt that anything I throw at MG would confirm to his standard of evidence, and our disagreement about standards probably goes way, way back to how we each think science works, which means that our disagreement on standards is probably essential and can thus not be debated.

In short, no challenges that cannot efficiently and quickly be met by a certain set of regulations. Anything else is mental masturbation.

3) All posts must contain, in their title, a quick explanation of what the debate in question is (i.e., Intelligent Design - Open letter to....etc.). Makes things a little easier.

(Bjorn? Are you even here?)

Oh, and feel free to invite others - I imagine this would get pretty boring with just the four of us.