A cyber-war has broken out between creationists and evolutionary biologists. PZ Myers is calling upon those who are critical of creationism/intelligent design to crash an online poll about a zoo partnership. In the few hours after his first call to arms, the YES votes (those critical of creationism) mushroomed from around 200 (20% of the vote) to 18,000 (95% of the vote). Go vote in the poll to take part in this Stephen Colbert-esque demonstration of grass roots power.
Comments
Justin Gerke | 12/04/08 | 10:44 AM
This explosion of yes votes - I wonder how the zoo and the museum will interpret it. When I just checked (10:27 Eastern time), the yes votes tallied 167,525 (99.1%) and the no votes totaled 908 (0.54%). Obviously the yes votes are overwhelming. But I wonder if the museum will just blame it on those crazy godless scientists who refuse to believe Jesus rode to Sunday school on a dinosaur, and say that Myers' call was little more than stuffing the ballot box. If that's the case, is the poll valid? Will it change the museum staffers' minds?
I'm not from northern Kentucky/southern Ohio (the poll's newspaper audience), although I've driven through it a number of times and it is lovely. Regardless, I'm not a citizen and don't represent the locals that are impacted daily by the zoo and museum. Does that mean I shouldn't vote?
I don't have answers to any of these questions; I just wonder if the polls like this are merely to confirm someone's viewpoint, or if the votes come in against that viewpoint, the votes are dismissed as somehow not valid. (For a great example of this, check out the Franken/Coleman fight up in Minnesota, where I grew up. Talk about a zoo!)