I'm not a math teacher.
Ron:==
> You
>would never make it. You do not seem to know what context is. The quote
>is very much in line with the tenor of the book. There is a slight
>variance in the quote. I used "macroevolutionary" instead of
>"evolutionary". Otherwise, it is verbatim.
>
Well, its still not quite verbatim. You wrote:
"serious, scientific theory of the 20 century"
whereas Denton wrote:
"serious twentieth-century scientific theory"
I mention this only because this would be an example of an
insignificant change which does not alter the meaning.
On the other hand "macroevolutionary" is not the same thing
as "evolutionary", changing this word does alter the
meaning of the quote.
Changing the words in a quote is bad enough. Let's now consider
the context in which you used this quote:
=====begin quote of Ron======
Chill out, Glenn, cool it! I must have hit some nerve in our debate.
Perhaps it was the towering ediface of knowledge you have built is looming
to you as having been built on the sand of macroevolution. I know it is to
more and more. Consider this quote "Dr. Michael Denton's book EVOLUTION: A
THEORY IN CRISIS, pp306. "The hold of the macroevolutionary paradigm is so
powerful that an idea which is more like a principle of medieval astrology
than a serious, scientific theory of the 20 century has become a reality
for macroevolutionary biologists."
=======end quote===========
You use the quote in support of "... the sand of macroevolution",
however, the quote does not even contain the word macroevolution.
Now, as regarding the context of the quote in Denton, all one has
to do is add the first sentence in the paragraph from which your
quote was taken:
====begin quote of Denton=======
Despite the fact that no convincing explanation of how random
evolutionary processes could have resulted in such an ordered
pattern of diversity, the idea of uniform rates of evolution
is presented in the literature as if it were an empirical
discovery. The hold of the evolutionary paradigm is so powerful
that an idea which is more like a principle of medieval astrology
than a serious twentieth-century scientific theory has become a
reality for evolutionary biologists. -- Denton p. 306
=====end quote=================
Could anyone have ever guessed, from the quote you gave, that
the "idea which is more like a principle of medieval astrology"
is "the idea of uniform rates of evolution"? (i.e. the molecular
clock hypothesis). This is why I maintain that the quote is
out of context.
Ron:==
>I am not going to call you a liar as you did me. That is too demeaning,
>too cruel, too harsh a word. I'll just chalk it up to ignorance.
>
Yes, you are the model of politeness ;-).
But you will note that I did not actually call you a liar,
allowing for the possibility that you copied the quote
from another source. This was originally my first hypothesis.
For example, there is an oddity in your quote in that the
quotation marks include Denton's name and the book title.
You wrote: 'Consider this quote "Dr. Michael Denton's book
EVOLUTION: A THEORY IN CRISIS, pp306. ...'.
If you are quoting Denton then there is no need to put
Denton's name in quotations. If you are quoting another
source that quotes Denton this might make sense.
In your quote below this is modified slightly to
'"1.Dr. Michael Denton's book EVOLUTION: A THEORY IN CRISIS,
pp306.'. The 1. might suggest that this is the first
in a list of quotes.
This is all just wild speculation of course, there may be
many other explanations for this supposed "oddity", maybe
you just hit the wrong key or something.
The reason I'm going into all this is that if you copied
the quote from another source then you would only be
guilty of bad judgement.
If, on the other hand, you altered the quote yourself
then the conclusion seems inescapable. You claimed to
be quoting Denton but Denton did not, in fact, write what
you said he wrote. If you were the one who altered the
quote then you would know that Denton did not write what
you said he wrote.
One final point. The reason I was so harsh with you
was on account of your unsubstantiated accusation
against Glenn. I was very pleased to see your
apology. This certainly took courage and I commend
you for that. I invite you now to complete what
you started and retract your quote of Denton, refraining
in the future from giving altered quotations.
Ron:==
>For those of you who wish again to see the quote -"1.Dr. Michael Denton's
>book EVOLUTION: A THEORY IN CRISIS, pp306. "The hold of the
>macroevolutionary paradigm is so powerful that an idea which is more like a
>principle of medieval astrology than a serious, scientific theory of the 20
>century has become a reality for macroevolutionary biologists."
>
>Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
> and do not rely on your own insight.. Pr. 3:5
>Ron Chitwood
>chitw@flash.net
Brian Harper
Associate Professor
Applied Mechanics
The Ohio State University
"It is not certain that all is uncertain,
to the glory of skepticism." -- Pascal