Evolving Thoughts

The lying Origin

How can you tell when a creationist is lying on TV? When their lips move… Ray Comfort has published an “edition” of the Origin of Species, with, of course, a 50 page “introduction” that repeats all the usual creationist lies. But to add insult to injury, he also excises some of Darwin’s most impressive arguments. I expected they’d cut out passages that they like to ignore in their quotemines; I didn’t expect they’d cut out whole chapters. Genie Scott discusses it here.

Creationism and Intelligent Design Evolution

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Comments (16)

    1. Ignorance is our weapon. Ignorance, and quotemining. Our two weapons are ignorance, quotemining, and an almost pathological hatred of evolution…

      I’ll come in again.

  3. I knew Comfort was dishonest, I was pretty certain the introduction to his free copy of “Origin” was going to be bad even before I read it (my fears, they were confirmed), but excising whole chapters? Even I was surprised. That is mendacity of a simply staggering level.

    1. I expected them to be a lot more subtle – you know, like not putting the rest of the “eye quote” in; that sort of thing. This is just dumb.

      Why am I even surprised?

      1. I knew Comfort was unintelligent, I was pretty certain the introduction to his free copy of “Origin” was going to be badly reasoned nonsense even before I read it (my fears, they were confirmed), but editing the text so obviously and in such a leaden and clunkingly blatant manner? Even I was surprised. That is stupidity of a simply staggering level.

        (I felt that the previous post’s form needed no modification, only certain terms needed substitution)

  5. Scott’s article is very good. I do have one objection, though. She lists the Bible as something that “should be on every educated person’s bookshelf.” I would wager that there are lots of educated Muslims, Hindus, etc. who would take exception to that claim. I left a longer comment at the article explaining my case.

    1. No, I fully agree. Also the Quran, The Vedas and Upanishads. The Analects of Confucius. The Sayings of the Buddha. These are texts that should be on an educated person’s shelves, next to Kapital, Freud’s Civilization, and so on. You don’t need to believe them; just know them.

      1. I actually have all of those, but I’m not sure that they qualify as something that everyone should have to read. Honestly I wasn’t very impressed with the Koran, especially.

        I agree that anyone educated should be familiar with the Origin, but I’m not sure if I feel the same way about, say, the Guru Granth Sahib. As I said in my comment on the article, the significance of religious scriptures is often confined to certain cultures and religions, whereas science is something that’s true anywhere. I don’t see why a person couldn’t be a perfectly well-rounded, educated adult without reading the Koran. But I do think they’re missing something if they ignore evolution.

        Every religion thinks their scriptures are the best book in the world. The Book of Mormon is a work of art for Mormons, while it’s “chloroform in print” for the rest of us.

      2. I even have a book of Mormon. One time some Mormons came by to evangelise and they didn’t have a copy. I said, “Hang on”, and went and got mine. They looked very nervous after that and left shortly.

        That said, one need only know these things as a matter of literary awareness. This is even true of the Origin. It hardly gives us a fair and true picture of evolutionary biology (for that, I recommend Carl Zimmer’s Evolution for beginners and Colin Patterson’s book by the same title, second edition, for those who want to go further). It is of historical interest only, much like Newton’s Principia (yes, I have a copy of that too. I’m obsessed by books).

  6. 😀

    I’m a fellow book-hoarder. I have three different translations of the Principia–Cohen’s, Chandrasekhar’s, and Motte’s. 🙂

    I also have a book of Mormon. I thought I’d give them a fair shake, so I ordered a free copy through the mail from the church (with a message saying I did NOT want them to send someone to my place as follow up–which they honored). I’ll be honest: I couldn’t finish it. I got about 100 pages in before I felt like one more “And it came to pass” would make my head explode.

    I guess I just don’t see the literary significance of scriptures as being as important as you do. It seems to me like any book, even one of obviously sub-par literary quality, could become a Holy Book. I really don’t see what value the Koran has for a non-Muslim, for instance.

    1. Sorry. The above comment was meant to be in response to John’s comment on the book of Mormon and such. I must have clicked the wrong button.

      1. De nada.

        I forget which translation I have of the Principia, but the reason I have it is different from why I have the holy books. Newton is interesting in and of himself, for all kinds of reasons. But I have the holy books so that when someone quotes them in another literary or cultural context I can go read the passage itself and see what it meant in context. I know the Bible because I spent too many years studying it in detail, but it’s a matter of courtesy in my mind to be able to find out more about someone else’s traditions.

  7. I also have my free book of Mormon. And Jewish and Christian bibles. All are useful reference books. If I run into a free Koran, I’ll add that to my library, too.

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