At 03:48 PM 6/11/98 -0400, Brian D Harper wrote:
>At 07:56 PM 6/9/98 -0500, Glenn wrote:
>
>>Concerning the Video, "From a Frog to a Prince"
>>My comment on Gillian Brown's response:
>>
>
>Glenn, perhaps you can clarify something for me. As I understand
>it, Dawkins denies having ever been asked this question in an
>interview. Also, his response in the video does not seem to
>answer the question. What I'm curious about is whether Dawkins
>has indicated to you (or in one of his books) how he would
>answer this question. The reason I ask is in view of Gillian's
>statement in the letter you posted:
>
>"It is our policy to represent the views of those on both sides of
>the debate fairly and without manipulation." -- Gillian Brown
>
>If Dawkins has indicated a view different from that suggested
>on the tape then fair representation would demand a modification
>of the tape or its withdrawal, IMHO.
Without quoting Dawkins, he told me in private e-mail that when faced with
a difficult question he would not sit silent but would mumble something
like 'that is an interesting question, giving himself time to think. he
said that he would never pause for 11 seconds before answering a question
and he was absolutely sure of that. He said that that was not a difficult
question. He didn't tell me what he thought would be a good answer however.
I e-mailed him last Sunday for an update but he hasn't responded. I don't
know what that means.
>
>I also noticed that Ms. Brown indicated an interest in following
>the discussion. Are you forwarding responses to her? The reason
>I ask is that I plan to make some further comments on her letter
>which I would like for her to see.
I told her what I thought of it when I asked permission to re-post, so I
didn't sent this particular note to her.
>
>Also, what issue of <Perspectives> does your review appear
>in?
>
It is still in press and should be out maybe in 6-9 months.
>[...]
>
>>GM:==
>> There are some things said in the snipped portion that relay information
>>to me about what happened that does concern me, but I will honor Brown's
>>request to keep them to my self as that was her instructions.
>
>This is best of course. I would like to venture a guess about what
>may have concerned you. One thing that caught my attention in Ms.
>Browns description is the following:
>
>> Gillian Brown:
>>I asked him the question as it appears repeated by the presenter in
>>the video. The question is word-for-word verbatim as it was asked him.
His
>>response to the question was the long pause, as seen on the video. He then
>>asked me to switch off the camera. (That request is edited out of the
>>video.) Then he gave the unedited response which follows in the video,
>>that evolution happened a long time ago and we would not expect to see such
>>changes today. A response which clearly does not answer the question.
>>
>
>What I would like to know is what else Dawkins said after asked that
>the cameras be switched off, i.e. did he say that his answer (the
>one given on the tape) was off the record? If not why did he ask
>the cameras to be turned off? Also, why is this request not shown?
>In my experience, a request by an interviewee to turn off the
>cameras indicates something is going on.
That is part of my concern. For the moment, I am trying to chase some more
info down and hope to have something definite in a few weeks from a
different source. So at this time, I don't want to ruin my chances of
getting what I want by talking about it publically.
glenn
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm