>Stephen quotes:
>"The fossil record with its abrupt transitions offers no support for gradual
>change...Yet the unnecessary link that Darwin forged became a central tenet
>of the synthetic theory."
>
>The original version reads "The fossil record with its abrupt transitions
>offers no support for gradual change, and the principle of natural selection
>does not require it--selection can operate rapidly."
>
>As you can see the portion left out was brief, but it refutes what Stephen
>was saying. The missing verbage changes the meaning of the paragraph and
>reveals that Gould does *not* agree that variation and selection are
>controversial.
I don't see how the meaning is changed. SJ says "unnecessary" and the
quoted text says "does not require".
>I think the point is obvious. ID is propaganda, just as the quotes Stephen
>picks up here and there (I *don't* believe he's read all those books) are
>propaganda. Truth-value is secondary as long as doubt seems to be cast on
>evolution and Christian mythology seems to be science.
If truth-value were primary to you, you wouldn't speculate about whether
he's reading books or just magically finding the quotes he uses.
--Cliff Lundberg ~ San Francisco ~ cliff@noe.com