"Professor Dawkins, can you give an example of a genetic mutation or an
evolutionary process which can be seen to increase the information in the
genome?"
Dawkins is shown starring at the ceiling for 11 seconds which includes a
sharp in take of air. and then he resumes with the unresponsive :
"There is a popular misunderstanding of evolution that says that fish
turned into reptiles and reptiles turned into mammals and and so somehow we
ought to be able to look around the world today and look at our ancestors."
I had originally questioned whether there was some doctoring going on in
the tape because of certain technical details that were amiss. The shadows
on the narrator were not the shadows from the room in which Dawkins sat.
And the room appeared to be different. I wrote Dawkings and asked him
about this. He denied having any recollection of this event. I suspected a
video hatchet job. After Gillian established contact with me in June, I
found that my suspicions were correct that the narrator was not in the same
room as Dawkings. Gillian admitted that she had the narrator re-dub the
question but contended that she had asked exactly that question and that
Dawkins was shown exactly has he performed at the filming. Gillian sent a
copy the original audio tape of the interview with Dawkins to a freind of
mine. He sent the tape to me. I have just heard it tonight.
I will state categorically that the audio tape of the interview 100%
supports Gillian Brown's contention that Dawkins couldn't answer the
question. Here is the relevant transcript:
**begin ***
Gillian Brown: Can you give an example of a genetic mutation or an
evolutionary process which can be seen to increase the information in the
genome?
[19 seconds of silence which includes a sharp intake of air which is seen
on the video and heard on the audio tape-grm]
Dawkins: "Can you just stop there I think ...[tape then has a second or
two of silence-grm]"
{When the taping starts again the audio tape demonstrates that the
unresponive response was what was there==grm]
Gillian: "I'm recording."
Dawkins: "OK"
"There is a popular misunderstanding of evolution that says that fish
turned into reptiles and reptiles turned into mammals and and so somehow we
ought to be able to look around the world today and look at our ancestors.
We ought to be able to see the intermediates between fish and reptiles and
..."
***end**
The only alteration to the question posed by Gillian originally to Dawkins
is the narrator's addition of the words "Professor Dawkins," in front of
the question. That is such a minor change that it does not alter the
substance of Gillian's claim.
I find it disappointing that Dawkins wouldn't respond to my later e-mails
trying to get his response to Ms. Brown's claims and indeed his lack of
response says a lot to me about this incident. I also found it
disappointing that Dawkins wouldn't admit that that the incident had occurred.
I owe Ms. Brown an apology for my initial skepticism and I offer it here. I
was unequivocally wrong in my suspicion of her. While we have in general
been on civil terms, I do want her to know that not all evolutionists
disregard truth as many creationists believe. After listening to the audio
tape, her video, I firmly believe records an accurate account of the
Dawkings incident.
I might add that I think Ms. Brown did Dawkins a favor. While Dawkins is
shown staring at the ceiling for 11 seconds on the video, the actual time
on the audio is 19 seconds. She spared Dawkins 8 seconds of embarrassment.
I am sending a copy of this to both Dawkins and to Ms. Brown.
glenn
Adam, Apes and Anthropology
Foundation, Fall and Flood
& lots of creation/evolution information
http://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm