Can challenges be raised to Austin's geological arguments?
Of course. Just as challenges can be directed at, for instance,
Glenn's continuing advocacy of ribozyme engineering as relevant
to prebiotic evolution. I expect that Glenn will take his
objections directly to Steve, just as I've told Glenn when,
after reading his book, I disagreed with his interpretation of
the relevance of ribozyme engineering, the Kollar and Fisher "hen's
teeth" experiment, developmental mutants, and so on.
My post about "research practices" was directed to the
question posed in the header. Steve Austin and Kurt Wise
look at rocks first-hand, all the time. I wanted simply
to establish that point.
Paul Nelson