RE: My last word & ad hominem

Susan Brassfield (susan-brassfield@ou.edu)
Tue, 20 Apr 1999 09:50:34 -0600

At 12:48 PM -0700 4/19/99, Brian D Harper wrote:
>Don,
>
>Thanks for your considerate reply. It was exactly the kind of
>response I was hoping for. My post was not intended to be an
>endorsement of Wells but rather it was kind of a knee jerk
>reaction against the approach to debate that seems to be favored
>by some. Wells made some specific allegations that can be dealt
>with specifically. Instead, some seem to want to take the track
>that Wells has no right to raise these objections since his
>robes are not long enough and his hood is of the wrong color.
>This I find enormously irritating and contrary to the spirit of
>science.

I wondered about this. I'm not a scientist of any kind. I'm a fan. I am an
*advocate* for evolution. I figure that you don't need to hire an
oncologist to lance a boil and it doesn't take a PhD in evolutionary
biology to refute creationism.

I know it's pretty common for "creation scientists" to have manufactured,
phony degrees and if Wells was one of those, it needed exposing. But saying
he's only a lowly post doc with only two pubs to his name certainly doesn't
address the cogency of his remarks. Even an idiot can say brilliant things
(e.g. Einstein's wife had their front door painted red so Albert could find
his way home when he went out for a walk) and even a brilliant person can
say stupid things (e.g. Dawkins saying that evolution refutes theism.)

Susan, somewhere between brilliant and idiot

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Life is short, but it's also very wide.

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