From: MikeBGene@aol.com <MikeBGene@aol.com>
>In a message dated 3/19/00 3:22:02 AM Dateline Standard Time,
>tich@primex.co.uk writes:
>
><< Dembski writes:
> >Daniel Dennett even recommends
> >"quarantining" parents who teach their children to doubt Darwinism
> >(see the end of his *Darwin's Dangerous Idea*).
>
> Dembski has here conflated ideas from two paragraphs, and created a
meaning
> which is expressed by neither of them. So you can judge for yourselves,
here
> are the two consecutive paragraphs in full:
>
> "We should not expect this variety of respect [for religions] to be
> satisfactory to those who wholeheartedly embody the memes we honor with
our
> attentive--but not worshipful--scholarship. On the contrary, many of them
> will view anything other than enthusiastic conversion to their own views
as
> a threat, even an intolerable threat. We must not underestimate the
> suffering such confrontations cause. To watch, to have to participate in,
> the contraction or evaporation of beloved features of one's heritage is a
> pain only our species can experience, and surely few pains could be more
> terrible. But we have no reasonable alternative, and those whose visions
> dictate that they cannot peacefully coexist with the rest of us we will
have
> to quarantine as best we can, minimizing the pain and damage, trying
always
> to open a path or two that may come to seem acceptable.
>
> "If you want to teach your children that they are the tools of God, you
had
> better not teach them that they are God's rifles, or we will have to stand
> firmly opposed to you: your doctrine has no special glory, no intrinisic
and
> inalienable merit. If you insist on teaching your children
falsehoods--that
> the Earth is flat, that "Man" is not a product of evolution by natural
> selection--then you must expect, at the very least, that those of us who
> have freedom of speech will feel free to describe your teachings as the
> spreading of falsehoods, and will attempt to demonstrate this to your
> children at the earliest opportunity. Our future well-being--the
well-being
> of all of us on the planet--depends on the education of out
descendants.">>
>
>I must confess that I fail to see how this was a mis-quote. Dennetts words
>drip
>with know-it-all arrogance, to the point where he does assert that we
should
>quarantine, the best we can, those who "cannot peacefully coexist" with his
>personal metaphysics.
But Dennett does not equate those who "cannot peacefully coexist with the
rest of us" with those who teach their children falsehoods.
>Imagine if a Christian wrote those very paragraphs and
>was
>talking about members of another religion. He then plans to use "free
>speech" to
>demonstrate (through education) to the children of religious people their
>"falsehoods" (which from his perspctive, includes the belief "God exists").
>This can easily be interpreted as part of the quarantine plan.
You may guess it to be part of the quarantine "plan". Dennett doesn't say
that it is.
>I suppose you could interpret these paragraphs such that Dembski misquotes
>Dennett, but then it's all a matter of interpretation.
No, it's a matter of what Dennett actually says, as opposed to what Dembski
thinks he says.
Dembski should exercise more caution when paraphrasing. Misrepresentation is
death to reasoned debate.
>The really interesting thing is that Dennett is so convinced by his own
biases
>and philosophy that he actually thinks the evolution of Man *by natural
>selection*
>is a fact. Too bad Dennett wasn't posting here, as I'd like him to provide
>the
>evidence that it was indeed natural selection that evolved the rather long
>series of biological features that led to human beings. If he couldn't do
>this (and he
>wouldn't be able to), I'd like him to explain why his education is not in
>fact indoctrination.
By the way, I agree that Dennett is arrogant (so am I sometimes). I also
think that he's a very good writer.
Richard Wein (Tich)
See my web pages for various games at http://homepages.primex.co.uk/~tich/
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