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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 11/10/2009 : 04:53:21
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This brief "review" needs to be seen for it to be believed that so little could be said with so few words.
O’Leary’s review of a book on Darwin’s co-theorist Wallace
O'Leary
My review of Michael Flannery’s edition of Darwin’s co-theorist Wallaces’s World of Life in Touchstone has been published.
Having followed the intelligent design controversy for a decade, I have noticed a recent key change. This year, being the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species, should have continued Charles Darwin’s century and a half of triumph. Yet his followers’ accolades are greeted with increasing incredulity, among both serious scientists and the general public. For example, serious scientists and thinkers convened last year at Altenberg, Austria, to consider alternatives to Darwin’s theory of evolution, and a recent Zogby poll showed that most people still don’t believe it, after countless years and dollars spent to convince them.
Darwinism is sort of like Frostie the Snowman. Adults do not believe it because it is not believable.
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That's it. That's the whole shitaree and it causes me to wonder: why bother to write it? And what publication published it? She doesn't say...
As an answer, I'll use the thoughts of others from the comments:
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Mark Frank
11/10/2009
1:50 am
a recent Zogby poll showed that most people still don’t believe it
No it didn’t. The only results I have ever seen published from this poll were about whether alternatives to evolution should be taught in school. Possibly there were questions about the respondents’ beliefs and possibly the results showed most Americans still don’t believe in evolution. That’s the limit to what it might have established.
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Graham1
11/10/2009
3:15 am
x
serious scientists and thinkers convened last year at Altenberg, Austria, to consider alternatives to Darwin’s theory of evolution
Oh really ?
This is part of the statement agreed to by all 16 participants:
By incorporating these new results and insights into our understanding of evolution, we believe that the explanatory power of evolutionary theory is greatly expanded within biology and beyond.
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Of course, this is not the first time meetings of researchers have been misrepresented and, also of course, popular polls mean nothing as far as science is concerned. The main interest here is in how quickly Denyse got taken to task at her own website.
IDCreationists are amazing. They have nothing relevent to add to any E/C conversation but are ever eager to add it anyway.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
 Posted - 11/10/2009 : 05:42:26 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
That's it. That's the whole shitaree and it causes me to wonder: why bother to write it? And what publication published it? She doesn't say... |
As distasteful as defending the crazy Canadian is, she does link to her review, and she only posted the first paragraph of that review on UD.
Of course, the full "review" isn't any better than the first paragraph. O'Leary uses it more to slam Darwin (that nasty materialist atheist), than to critically examine the book she's allegedly reviewing. One could use the publishing of this review as an indicator of the quality of editing at Touchstone Magazine (poor). |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2009 : 06:47:51 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dave W.
Originally posted by filthy
That's it. That's the whole shitaree and it causes me to wonder: why bother to write it? And what publication published it? She doesn't say... |
As distasteful as defending the crazy Canadian is, she does link to her review, and she only posted the first paragraph of that review on UD.
Of course, the full "review" isn't any better than the first paragraph. O'Leary uses it more to slam Darwin (that nasty materialist atheist), than to critically examine the book she's allegedly reviewing. One could use the publishing of this review as an indicator of the quality of editing at Touchstone Magazine (poor).
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D'oh!  I missed that! I must be getting sloppy(er). Worse yet, I got a gateway timeout when I tried to open the link and so haven't seen the whole thing. I'll try again later and might, or not, comment.
But no matter, Denyse is Denyse and ID/UD is ID/UD, and the world just keeps on spinning and spinning, and really, I think it is making her/them a little woosy(er).
It's a little remarkable, y'know. They attack Darwin 24/7, even on Sunday when they're supposed to be in church, but yet can't take a tiny amount of time from it for an honest book review. *Tsk*
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Hawks
SFN Regular
Canada
1383 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2009 : 08:52:15 [Permalink]
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Yup. That review was about as good as anything Denyse ever does. I.e. it's not a review and she, yet again, displays her inability to write coherently. She also manages to write:| Darwin argued that natural selection acting on random mutations produces the intricate machinery of life. |
which is simply wrong. |
METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden! |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2009 : 09:33:44 [Permalink]
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Still can't get the link, even from UD -- why am I always tempted to put an "I" in front of "UD?"
Anyhow, if y'all's description is at all accurate, and having read quite a bit of O'Leary, I'm sure that it is, I ain't missin' much.
Being something of a hack myself, I know the breed well. If O'Leary makes her living with the pen, the literary depths to which too much of the public has descended are abysmal.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Dave W.
Info Junkie
USA
26022 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2009 : 10:26:43 [Permalink]
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Link still works for me, filthy. Here's the best-written part of her review:Alfred Russel Wallace’s Theory Of Intelligent Evolution
by Michael Flannery
Erasmus Press, 2009
(240 pages, $27.95, paperback) |
But holy cow! $28 for a paperback? What the hell has happened to book prices? Amazon confirms that the price and the format. 
Amazon also offers, in the form of a customer review, the following tidbit which sheds a lot of light on this subject:| Foreword by William A. Dembski |
That's right. Dembski wrote the foreword to this book which attempts to celebrate Wallace as a Design proponent. That foreword probably cost the author $20,000 and a bottle of Scotch, which would explain the exorbitant price of the book. |
- Dave W. (Private Msg, EMail)
Evidently, I rock!
Why not question something for a change?
Visit Dave's Psoriasis Info, too. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 11/10/2009 : 13:08:49 [Permalink]
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Hmph. Dembski, eh? Figgers. The reviews at Amazon make a pretty good, albeit a little tedious, read.
Remarkable that they can plumb the mind of a dead man so thoroughly, isn't it? As is mentioned, Wallace was, among other things, something of a spiritualist and couldn't seem to let go of it. Nevertheless, although he lived in a time of the original contention over the ToE, he in no way furthered the cause of intelligent design, which is not supposed to have involved a deity, just an intelligence. ID is a modern creationist delusion thought up by modern, deluded creationists -- remember the Wedge Document?
You're right; 28 dollars (reduced to 25) is a lot to pay for gruel that thin. I really don't think this screed of apologetics will make Amazon's Top Ten list.
I still can't get the link to work but no longer care. 
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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O'Leary reviews a book?
