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To: Coyoteman

Thank you, now for your reading pleasure...

Quoting, Misquoting, Quote-Mining

http://www.uncommondescent.com/index.php/archives/26

In Defense of Quoting Darwinists

http://www.uncommondescent.com/index.php/archives/1120#more-1120

http://www.discovery.org/articleFiles/PDFs/quesAndAnsNCSECritiqueOfBib.pdf
( GO TO POINT NUMBER 6 ).

Truth Sheet: How the NCSE Uses False Charges of "Misquotation" to Stifle Scientific Debate

http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/filesDB-download.php?id=117


338 posted on 07/22/2006 8:16:52 PM PDT by SirLinksalot
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To: SirLinksalot
Your comments on quote mining are noted.

Here is what you included in your post (back in #212):

All paleontologists know that the fossil record contains precious little in the way of intermediate forms; transitions between major groups are characteristically abrupt.

Here is the rest of the passage (source):

Gradualists usually extract themselves from this dilemma by invoking the extreme imperfection of the fossil record.

Although I reject this argument (for reasons discussed in ["The Episodic Nature of Evolutionary Change"]), let us grant the traditional escape and ask a different question. Even though we have no direct evidence for smooth transitions, can we invent a reasonable sequence of intermediate forms -- that is, viable, functioning organisms -- between ancestors and descendants in major structural transitions? Of what possible use are the imperfect incipient stages of useful structures? What good is half a jaw or half a wing? The concept of preadaptation provides the conventional answer by permitting us to argue that incipient stages performed different functions. The half jaw worked perfectly well as a series of gill-supporting bones; the half wing may have trapped prey or controlled body temperature. I regard preadaptation as an important, even an indispensable, concept. But a plausible story is not necessarily true. I do not doubt that preadaptation can save gradualism in some cases, but does it permit us to invent a tale of continuity in most or all cases? I submit, although it may only reflect my lack of imagination, that the answer is no, and I invoke two recently supported cases of discontinuous change in my defense.

[snip--follow the link for more]

Happy now?

I will leave it to you and the lurkers to decide whether this changes any meanings.

Your links to the Discovery Institute I did not follow. I do science, not apologetics.

341 posted on 07/22/2006 8:34:59 PM PDT by Coyoteman (I love the sound of beta decay in the morning!)
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