Re: Nice ad hominem (was The Wedge Project)

From: Stephen E. Jones (sejones@iinet.net.au)
Date: Sun Oct 08 2000 - 18:33:07 EDT

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    Reflectorites

    On Thu, 5 Oct 2000 21:09:16 EDT, FMAJ1019@aol.com wrote:

    [...]

    >SJ>This is old news. My recollection is that it was posted to the Reflector
    >>some time ago. Presumably to heighten the impression of some sort of
    >>conspiracy by the ID movement, Susan gives the impression that this is the
    >>first time she had heard of it, which I must say I would find hard to
    >>believe.

    [...]

    FJ>Nice ad hominem

    [...]

    I did not say anything about Susan personally except that she "gives the
    impression that this is the first time she had heard of it..." which is honestly
    how it seemed, to me at least.

    What I said was about *me*, namely "I would find [it] hard to believe",
    which is true. Maybe I shouldn't have said it, but I was leaving it
    open for Susan to clarify the matter.

    If this was an ad hominem, then it was at the low end of the Richter scale.
    Susan has in the past called me a liar (when I wasn't) and even named a
    thread to that effect. I never noticed any on the evolution side (except
    perhaps Cliff Lundberg) rushing to my defence. It is this lack of ordinary
    fair-mindedness which IMHO is a main cause of the demise of the
    Reflector.

    If Susan wants to say that this was in fact "the first time she had heard of
    it", then I will apologise for any appearance of an ad hominem my honest
    expression of personal doubt might have had.

    In fact on the principle of "Abstain from all appearance of evil" (1Th 5:22),
    (the next verse in my tagline BTW), I will apologise for it anyway!

    Steve

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