Mike says it's OK to misrepresent people (was Disbelieving Darwin...)

From: Richard Wein (tich@primex.co.uk)
Date: Tue Mar 21 2000 - 10:31:25 EST

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    Hi Mike,

    There was very little in your last message that addressed the issue of
    whether Dembski misrepresented Dennett. I don't want to get distracted into
    a discussion about whether Dennett's views are right, wrong, outrageous,
    etc. You seem to consider that misrepresention is unimportant. I consider it
    to be very important.

    (By the way, I note that you quoted another writer misrepresenting Dennett
    in a similar way!)

    At the risk of heating up the debate, I've made an assertion in the subject
    line which ia analogous to Dembksi's assertion about Dennett. Since you've
    justified Dembski's assertion on the grounds that it's a "reasonable
    interpretation", I've made a reasonable interpretation of something you
    wrote. To quote your earlier post (20 March 2000 03:20):

    >If Dembski misrepresents Dennett, then Dennett can come
    >out and more fully explain what he was trying to say. He
    >can set the record straight and while he is at it, provide his
    >evidence that it was indeed natural selection that evolved
    >humans.

    Reasonable interpretation: it's OK to misrepresent people, because they can
    set the record straight afterwards.

    Perhaps you will consider my assertion to be an accurate representation. In
    that case, this thread will wither on the vine. But if you object that my
    assertion is a misrepresentation, you must find some grounds for doing so
    that do not apply equally to Dembski's assertion, or else agree with me that
    Dembski's assertion is a misrepresentation.

    Disclaimer: in making my assertion, I'm committing the same offense of which
    I accuse Dembski. I hope it's clear that I'm only doing this to prove a
    point, and I don't really mean it.

    Richard Wein (Tich)
    See my web pages for various games at http://homepages.primex.co.uk/~tich/



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