Steve,
Parroting Phil Johnson is not very convincing. All this does is provide us
with Phil's opinion (an opinion that many of us are familiar with), but does
not really address the specific issues in a direct fashion. In order to
defeat a point of view, you need to offer more than a counter argument. How
would you know if Johnson's point of view is accurate or inaccurate if you
don't read alternative opinions? On what basis do you judge Johnson correct
and those who disagree with him, wrong?
Simply citing authors who have opinions different from what is stated on
this forum says nothing about the relative strength of the different points
of view. My suggestion is that you broaden your reading so that you are as
cognizent of the alternative viewpoint of evolution as you are of Johnson's
viewpoint. For starters, I suggest that you read Eliot Sober's books,
Philosophy of Biology (Westview Pres, 1993) and Conceptual Issues in
Evolutionary Biology (MIT Press, 1995).
For every quote you post, I could counter with quotes from these and other
texts. So who has a handle on the truth? The one who reads selectively, or
the one who reads all viewpoints?
____________________________________________________________
Steven S. Clark, Ph.D . Phone: 608/263-9137
Associate Professor FAX: 608/263-4226
Dept. of Human Oncology and Email: ssclark@facstaff.wisc.edu
UW Comprehensive Cancer Center
CSC K4-432
600 Highland Ave.
Madison, WI 53792
____________________________________________________________