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talk.origins (often capitalised to Talk.Origins or abbreviated as t.o.) is a moderated Usenet discussion forum concerning the origins of life, and evolution. It remains a major venue for debate in the so-called creation-evolution controversy, and its official purpose is to draw such debates out of the science newsgroups, such as sci.bio.evolution.

History

The first post to talk.origins was a starter post by Mark Horton, dated 5 September 1986 In the early 1990s, a number of FAQs on various topics were being periodically posted to the newsgroup. In 1994, Brett J. Vickers established an anonymous FTP site to host the collected FAQs of the newsgroup. In 1995, Vickers started the TalkOrigins Archive web site as another means of hosting the talk.origins FAQs. It maintains an extensive FAQ on topics in evolutionary biology, geology and astronomy, with the aim of representing the views of mainstream science. It has spawned other websites, notably TalkDesign "a response to the intelligent design movement", Evowiki, and the Panda's Thumb weblog.

The group was originally created as the unmoderated newsgroup net.origins as a 'dumping ground' for all the various flame threads 'polluting' other newsgroups, then renamed to talk.origins as part of the Great Renaming. Subsequently, after discussion on the newsgroup, the group was voted to be moderated in 1997 by the normal USENET RFD/CFV process and only spam is censored. The moderator for the newsgroup is David Iain Greig (and technically Jim Lippard as alternate/backup).

Culture

The group is characterized by a long list of in-crowd jokes like the fictitious University of Ediacara, the equally fictitious Evil Atheist Conspiracy which allegedly hides all the evidence supporting Creationism, a monthly election of the Chez Watt-award for "statements that make you go 'say what', or some such.", pun cascades and a strong predisposition to quoting Monty Python.

Apart from the fun, however, the group is noted for its detailed and reasoned rebuttals to even the most unscientific creationist claims. This is a result of the one rule the group does seem to have, that any claim is to be backed up by actual evidence, preferably in the form of a peer-reviewed publication in a reputable journal. The truly great posts are nominated for a PoTM-award, which makes it into the annals of talkorigins.org.

Or, as the regulars say themselves:

> I don't think creationism can be compared with the human sex drive for 
> mesmerizability. 
One might agree with you, if one did not spend so much time in this 
newsgroup.

See also

• Evolution
• TalkOrigins Archive
• National Center for Science Education (NCSE)

Sources

1. "First post in (then) net.origins". Google Groups. 1986-09-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
2. "Robert Grumbine explaining the concept of Chez Watt". Google Groups. 2005-05-05. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
3. "Two regulars discussing their fascination". Google Groups.

External links

• The talk.origins homepage
• The Talk.Origins Archive
• Talk.Origins Foundation
• Talk Design
• Evowiki
• Panda's Thumb weblog
• The University of Ediacara

Some important posts

• The post by David Bostwick announcing the passing of the moderation vote dated May 5th 1997

• Newsgroups
• Anti-creationism
• Evolutionary biology