[Stultis]

I used to believe "evolution" to be a "scientific fact" until I looked into it myself.

I used to believe that antievolutionists might be advancing some valid and valuable criticisms, until I took several antievolution tomes and spent several weeks in a good academic library chasing out the footnotes. (Francis Hitchings The Neck of the Giraffe, Duane Gish's Evolution? The Fossils Say No and Henry Morris' Scientific Creationism, as well as a number of other antievolution works caught up by incestuous footnoting.) The level of dishonesty, and the universal toleration of it within the antievolution movement, was, and remains, shocking.

[PatrickHenry]

The level of dishonesty, and the universal toleration of it within the antievolution movement, was, and remains, shocking.

Intellectually (or perhaps psychologically) it's strikingly similar to the way the left clings to the dogma of socialism, long after the old leftist arguments have been refuted. It's the same kind of stubbornness -- "I've got my Truth^tm and I'm sticking to it, so take your lousy data and you know where you can stick it."

[antiRepublicrat]

, as well as a number of other antievolution works caught up by incestuous footnoting

"Incestuous footnoting." LOL! I'll have to remember that one. Now I have a simple term for the hack job the History Channel did on Hitler.

[ChessExpert]

Stultis, I like your tagline.

I haven't read Hitchings, Gish, or Morris. I have read other critics of evolutionary orthodoxy: Johnson, Wells, Behe, Cremo & Thompson, and Milton. So, it seems our Venn diagrams don't intersect. I found the authors that I read to be very knowledgeable. This is contrary to claim of some that these men are "ignorant." Nor do I have any reason to question their honesty. But thanks for the citations and opinion. It seems there is a "The Fossils Say No" and a "The Fossils Say Yes." Maybe that would be a good set to read sometime. Thanks for sharing your experiences.

[steve-b]

The level of dishonesty, and the universal toleration of it within the antievolution movement, was, and remains, shocking.

Indeed. To draw on obvious parallel, compare how the mainstream left treats Farenheit 9/11 and how the mainstream right treats The Clinton Chronicles.