Re: The Mere Creation Discussion

Jim Bell (70672.1241@CompuServe.COM)
05 Dec 96 18:33:31 EST

Brian D. Harper alleges that Denton misleads with his quotes from Darwin,
because an elipses separates a passage that PRECEDES the one before. However,
upon further inspection, this appears only to be an editor's error exacerbated
by one of my own. First, there are two footnote numbers in the Denton book,
but one of them is misplaced; it is there, correctly citing the first passage
as SUBSEQUENT to the second, but is placed BEFORE the first passage. And when
I copied it, I did not make them separate paragraphs, as Denton does in the
book. My apologies for making it look bad.

But Brian, you do have a point. I also looked up the text in my copy of Origin
and all Darwin is doing is saying he is not "surprised" if others should feel
that natural selection can't do all these wonders. These passages do not show
the "self-doubt" Denton alleges. Here, Denton lets his advocacy run away a
little bit.

You did not, however, respond to the lengthy Denton quote I posted. I see
nothing wrong with it. Instead, you focus on "pure chance" as if it some sort
of phantom. It's also a convenient way to get off the issue. So forget that
phrase for a moment and respond to the quote that I so painstakingly typed
out!

<<Jim, what is the PROBABILITY of evolution?

Lower than a gnat's ankle.

<<I mean, just roughly, to within say 10 orders of magnitude. Please show your
work.>>

Shall I apply the same "method" you used to measure and conclude that my
arguments apply at least "10 times" more to ID? ;-)

Jim