Arguing with Creationists

One of my relatives forwarded me an e-mail that contained, among other things, some creationist nonsense. Although I obviously love to argue, I do not like arguing with creationists. The vast majority of creationists reject evolution out of ignorance, religious belief, or most commonly, a combination of the two. The few that have some actual scientific knowledge pertaining to evolution tend to have specific scientific-sounding arguments, which I sometimes can't answer without having to do research-- since I'm not a scientist myself.  It's all pointless. Most of them can't be bothered to spend the time and effort required to obtain even an adequate layman's understanding of evolution. If they read anything at all on the subject, it's just creationist propaganda. Yet they feel qualified to dismiss a foundational theory of science backed by mountains of evidence.

My standard procedure is to refer all creationists to TalkOrigins.org.  It has better answers to their arguments and misconceptions than anything I can say. If they find it unconvincing, there's no hope I'll be able to sway them.

The only creationists worthy of respect are those that say something like: It doesn't matter what scientists say, my religion says differently and I have faith that it is right. There's even one group who argues that God, for whatever reasons, faked the fossil record and made evolution appear to be true.  At least those people are intellectually honest and admit that they reject science because it conflicts with their religious beliefs.