Comment 28 by Happy Primate

I had the experience of chatting with someone on Huff-Post who had no idea that there were other galaxies than our own.

Got you beat. I had a blind date with a woman in her late twenties who didn't know what the stars in our night sky were. She thought they were "twinkling dust motes" or something like that.

At that moment, you could have knocked me over with a feather.

This was long before YouTube. I thought she was rather unique in her ignorance. The internet has now thoroughly disabused me of that silly notion. Case in point, PZ Myers posted this disturbing video over on Pharyngula. In America, we are literally surrounded by such people -- perfectly good people who have been poisoned by religion and converted into squawking meat puppets.

The internet has, for the first time in history, laid bare the true characteristics of the "mind pool" on this planet. In the past, political correctness and self-preservation prevented people (alliteration alert) from truly speaking their minds and exposing their thought processes. Consider, for example, a congregation of hundreds at a Southern Baptist mega-church. Take a good look at these fine folk. Well-dressed, charming, employed, gracious, kids clean with hair combed, trucks and SUVs all washed and waxed... what's not to like. Then, take a look at the online postings of these same people.

It's like ripping the lid off a shiny new can of Spam.