Roger Ebert posted an article, "Creationsim: Your questions answered," on his blog as a bit of satire. Anybody who knows the least little thing about him will know this was not meant to be straightforward. But there were thousands of comments on his site and throughout the blogosphere reflecting the widespread conviction that age and/or illness had turned him into a Creationist or a lunatic.
To sense the irony, you have to sense the invisible quotation marks. I suspect quotation marks may be growing imperceptible to us. We may be leaving an age of irony and entering an age of credulity. In a time of shortened attention spans and instant gratification, trained by web surfing and movies with an average shot length of seconds, we absorb rather than contemplate. We want to gobble all the food on the plate, instead of considering each bite. We accept rather than select.
I think that's right. The whole thing is an interesting read.
