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The Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis

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Paolo
Posts: 1474
Joined: September 13th, 2008, 9:15 am

The Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis

#1 Post by Paolo » February 28th, 2011, 6:50 pm

Hello all,

it's been a while, but things are beginning to calm down a little with blogging, public speaking and such-like, so I thought I would return to the friendly fold of TH.

Whilst blogging I encountered the legendary troll called John Davison - banned on all good biology blogs on the interwebs. His hypothesis is 'Prescribed Evolution' and it seems to centre around the idea that evolution occurred in the past but was leading to a 'perfect' state that we now inhabit. If I've understood correctly, the idea is that in the past species went extinct and were then replaced with new species in acts of special creation. It's hard to be sure because he doesn't communicate at all well.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else had encountered him, his zany hypothesis and his trolling ways?

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Alan H
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Re: The Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis

#2 Post by Alan H » February 28th, 2011, 7:05 pm

Paolo wrote:Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else had encountered him, his zany hypothesis and his trolling ways?
No, but now you've mentioned him here, he may just pop up! However, I have faith in your ability to deal with whatever nonsense he comes up with...
Alan Henness

There are three fundamental questions for anyone advocating Brexit:

1. What, precisely, are the significant and tangible benefits of leaving the EU?
2. What damage to the UK and its citizens is an acceptable price to pay for those benefits?
3. Which ruling of the ECJ is most persuasive of the need to leave its jurisdiction?

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Paolo
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Re: The Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis

#3 Post by Paolo » February 28th, 2011, 7:30 pm

Alan H wrote:
Paolo wrote:Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else had encountered him, his zany hypothesis and his trolling ways?
No, but now you've mentioned him here, he may just pop up! However, I have faith in your ability to deal with whatever nonsense he comes up with...
Doh! That crossed my mind, but I think he's more fixated on blogs - he found me because he has a minion who seeks out articles about Darwin etc. and alerts him to their presence. He has a real fixation on Darwin - it's like they were personal enemies or something...

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Alan C.
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Re: The Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis

#4 Post by Alan C. » February 28th, 2011, 8:02 pm

Alan H
No, but now you've mentioned him here, he may just pop up! However, I have faith in your ability to deal with whatever nonsense he comes up with...
I wait with baited breath :popcorn:
Abstinence Makes the Church Grow Fondlers.

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Paolo
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Re: The Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis

#5 Post by Paolo » February 28th, 2011, 8:34 pm

Alan C. wrote:
Alan H
No, but now you've mentioned him here, he may just pop up! However, I have faith in your ability to deal with whatever nonsense he comes up with...
I wait with baited breath :popcorn:
If you're in the mood for some troll-baiting then please feel free to have a poke here.

I was too busy with other stuff to bother dealing with his comments (and they're so spurious it's not worth it), but I felt that it was appropriate to expose his trolling behaviour, so I wrote a post about it. The beauty is that it wound him up so much that he now keeps returning and venting spleen in an increasingly psychotic way. Every so often I make a brief comment and it sets him off again - it's rather like saying 'cats' to an over-excitable Jack Russell and watching the yapping frenzy for entertainment. I know it's cruel, but it's been a really effective way of getting him to reveal his true colours (for example, one recent comment includes "Snap, crackle, pop, as the stench of burning atheist flesh permeates the atmosphere of evolutionary science..."). He's such a lovely chap! One thing that really seems to annoy him is sending his own little catch-phrases ("It doesn’t get any better than this. It can't!" and "I love it so!") back at him. I know that troll-baiting probably makes me a bad person, but after putting up with this guy invading my comments section and making himself an obnoxious nuisance, I feel it's justified.

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Val
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Re: The Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis

#6 Post by Val » March 1st, 2011, 12:23 am

I take 11 different tablets every day, three of which are to control my blood pressure. Therefore I think it would be unwise to read what these trolls say. Don't let them get your blood pressure up. However Paolo, keep up the good work when you feel so inclined.

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Paolo
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Re: The Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis

#7 Post by Paolo » March 1st, 2011, 7:29 am

Val wrote:I take 11 different tablets every day, three of which are to control my blood pressure. Therefore I think it would be unwise to read what these trolls say. Don't let them get your blood pressure up. However Paolo, keep up the good work when you feel so inclined.
Thanks Val, but I personally find it funny now. The first few trolling comments annoyed me, mostly because they were so flawed and I was far too busy to give substantiated responses, but as soon as I realised that the point of the trolling is to wind people up I thought it would be more interesting to stay calm and turn the tables. It's actually very therapeutic now!

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animist
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Re: The Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis

#8 Post by animist » March 1st, 2011, 7:53 am

Paolo wrote:One thing that really seems to annoy him is sending his own little catch-phrases ("It doesn’t get any better than this. It can't!" and "I love it so!") back at him. I know that troll-baiting probably makes me a bad person, but after putting up with this guy invading my comments section and making himself an obnoxious nuisance, I feel it's justified.
by making his day less than perfect you are disproving his theory - but maybe you are the new species which will take over!

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Dave B
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Re: The Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis

#9 Post by Dave B » March 1st, 2011, 12:45 pm

What you, and many others, need, Paolo, is some of this
Spoiler:
Image
"Look forward; yesterday was a lesson, if you did not learn from it you wasted it."
Me, 2015

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Paolo
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Re: The Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis

#10 Post by Paolo » March 1st, 2011, 8:04 pm

Dave B wrote:What you, and many others, need, Paolo, is some of this
Spoiler:
Image
LOL!

That is absolutely GENIUS! If only they sold it near me!

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Paolo
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Re: The Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis

#11 Post by Paolo » March 1st, 2011, 8:14 pm

John has been particularly funny today - he lost track of the post he was trolling on and went to the wrong place, so he thought I'd deleted his posts. So he had the following little rant:
I take it then that paolo, like Pee Zee, “godless ejaculating liberal” Myers, Dicky “blind watchmaker climbing mount improbable” Dawkins and Wes “you can’t teach an old dogma new tricks” Elsberry has finally banished me from this website too."
and then followed it up with:
And don’t try to deny that you have deleted my comments. I can prove otherwise.
I had to gently point him in the direction of his missing comment, without scoffing too much.

Everyone needs a pet troll like John, he's so funny!

Nick
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Re: The Prescribed Evolutionary Hypothesis

#12 Post by Nick » March 1st, 2011, 10:35 pm

:laughter: Is it just me, or is you avatar grinning more than usual? :D

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