Why AdminRandman? There's a few reasons.
First, and it's much my own fault, EvC Forum has turned into a bastion for evolutionism rather than a forum for open discussion on Creation/evolution. The push to improve the quality of discussion in the scientific forums by insisting on scientific arguments and excluding religious arguments had the effect of excluding many Creationists. This would be a very boring place without Creationists. We'd just sit around and stare at each other all day, every once in a while someone grumbling from his easy chair, "Evolution forever," and the rest responding "Here, here!" Not my idea of a healthy dialogue. Unless you enjoy debating your own echo, you have to admit that for a discussion to happen, the two sides need each other.
I was at one point hopeful that we might attract Creationists with a more solid background in science and that the tenor of discussion might improve that way, but that has not happened.
We have to accept the world as it is. The reality is that most Creationists have poor scientific backgrounds, while most evolutionists, at least here at EvC Forum, seem to not only have strong scientific backgrounds but to be employed in scientific fields. This is going to be the mix for most discussions here.
We don't want to be a biased site, and Creationist voices deserve to be heard. The operational framework of this board must take reality into account or risk becoming irrelevant.
One way to achieve balance and avoid bias is to have moderators from both sides of the debate. Recruiting Creationist moderators has been a goal from the beginning, but few were deemed qualified by evolutionists, and those that were turned out to be woefully inactive and were eventually retired from their moderator roles.
So if we're going to have Creationist moderators then we have to ignore any qualms we have about their qualifications or temperament and recruit those who are sufficiently energetic to provide actual moderation. My hope is that we'll find under the influence of our disagreements with them that we've severely underestimated their talents.
-- | Percy |
| EvC Forum Director |