Comments on: Must Be A Different Darwin

By: Jay Manifold

Jay Manifold — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:45:01 +0000

Laura – Thanks for the compliment, but the Type M/N dichotomy was definitely not my idea; I just happened to read the book it appeared in.

More broadly, what’s going on here is political maneuvering with very little regard for the truth. My heretofore high respect for Campolo has taken a serious hit from this. It’s classic pandering for votes.

By: Laura(southernxyl)

Laura(southernxyl) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:37:11 +0000

So possibly Campolo trusted someone he shouldn’t have. That kind of thing is why I’m more irritated when “my” side acts stupid than when the other side does. I don’t want to look like an idiot by quoting misinformation, or like a person with no class by being grouped with somebody who acts like a jackass. Creationism actually bothers me less than “we’re going to teach evolution and anybody who questions that is an irrelevant ignoramus”. Most of the people I’ve met who are uncomfortable with evolution aren’t stupid. But like anybody else, they’re not going to settle down to reach consensus with anyone who starts a conversation with “you dummy”. That is human nature 101.

By: Shannon Love

Shannon Love — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 20:24:53 +0000

Laura,

Back to topic: I’d be interested to know where Campolo got his misinformation.

I haven’t been able to find any references to the phrase online that are not related to Campolo. I imagine that he got it from creationist hardcopy.

By: Laura(southernxyl)

Laura(southernxyl) — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 02:02:48 +0000

I like your Type M/Type N explanation.

It reminds me of something my daughter said once when she was in middle school. My daughter used to bring me letters from her teachers and her principal with the spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors edited by her before I ever saw them. What she said was “Commas: You get ‘em or you don’t.” I agreed.

A person I know who always struck me as being very smart told me last fall that it’s her understanding that in 5 years, Wisconsin’s climate will be identical to that enjoyed by Arkansas right now. Madison has just broken its record for winter snowfall, and the winter isn’t over yet. I think it’s going to have to put forth some effort pretty quick to reach that 5-year goal.

Back to topic: I’d be interested to know where Campolo got his misinformation. Either he made all that up out of whole cloth (why? since he should know it would be found out) or he got it from some source he trusted not to make an abject fool of him. I wonder who that would be.

Also, Jay, what you said about “can’t we all just get along” – that puzzles me about this whole issue. Both sides are blasting past each other. No effort to reach any kind of consensus. It’s like people LIKE the hostility and conflict. Beats me.

By: Jay Manifold

Jay Manifold — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:44:48 +0000

I'm not sure "guilt" is meaningful here; relativity theory and the uncertainty principle, to name only the first two examples that occur to me, have been used by any number of (shameless link-pimping alert!) Type N's to buttress all manner of vicious nonsense. It would be absurd to blame Einstein and Heisenberg.

By: Robert Schwartz

Robert Schwartz — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 06:00:16 +0000

Your defense of Darwin is correct. OTOH, evolutionists are not free of guilt for some ultimately nasty intellectual trends in the 19th century.

Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, who invented regression analysis and fingerprinting, also founded eugenics which in turn gave rise to a lot of crackpot racial theorizing in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Neither Galton nor Darwin bears any imputation of illiberalism, but ideas of great power can be mis-used.

By: zenpundit

zenpundit — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 05:57:45 +0000

A devastating critique.

By: Shannon Love

Shannon Love — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:48:24 +0000

Thanks. I was surprised by just how blatant the errors were. I guess the Philadelphia Inquirer doesn’t do basic fact checking on Op-Eds.

By: Daniel Lapin

Daniel Lapin — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:44:04 +0000

Well done. Darwin is usually misunderstood, but rarely this badly. I think that you are correct in suggesting that Dr. Campolo didn’t read the book.

Have you submitted this tothe Enquirer as an Op-Ed piece? Or at least a letter to the editor?

By: Jay Manifold

Jay Manifold — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 20:27:00 +0000

Campolo is trying to build a bridge between evangelical liberals and social conservatives. He obviously doesn’t care how sloppy the argument is, only that the Left begin to somehow accrue support from antievolutionists.

This is, indeed, a first-class rebuttal, and I hope it will be widely linked and read.

By: fred lapides

fred lapides — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:49:20 +0000

Very nice rebuttal.