Re: Quote Mine Project - Part II

On Mon, 8 Sep 2003 02:05:43 +0000 (UTC), catshark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:

> 
> Lane Lewis got another list of quote mines from a creationist loudmouth
> writing Letters to the Editor here:
> 
> <http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2003/09/04/opinion/letters/9_4_036_16_42.txt>
> 
> Lane's post is here: Message-ID:
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 
> The post that originally brought this guy to our attention is here:
> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 
> Since the editing on the original Quote Mine Project list is almost done, I
> suppose it's time to look at some more.  This particular miner does, at
> least, have some quotes from outside the "usual suspects" (Gould, Eldredge,
> Patterson, Simpson, Darwin, etc.), though he has those as well.  
> 
> His references are badly munged, however, and it is even difficult to
> number the different quotes, though I've done my best.  I've already
> checked the original QMP list and got some hits.  That can be found
> (temporarily) here:
> <http://members.cox.net/ardipithecus/mine/quotemine.htm>
> 
> ====================(Begin repost)=================
> 
> >Sources sent by drforbing
> >
> 
> 1)
> >Charles Darwin: …"(Since) innumerable transitional forms must have existed,
> >why do we not find them imbedded in countless numbers in the crust of the
> >earth? "Origin of Species", p. 162. 
> 
> Needs looking up.
> 
> 2)
> >"Why is not every geological formation
> >and every stratum full of such intermediate links? Geology assuredly does
> >not reveal any such finely graduated organic chain: and this perhaps is the
> >most obvious and gravest objection which can be urged against my theory."
> >"Origin of Species," p. 293.
> 
> Quote #75.
> 
> 3)
> >
> >Stephen J. Gould: "The extreme rarity of transitional forms in the fossil
> >record persist as the trade secret of paleontology. The evolutionary trees
> >that adorn our textbooks have data only at the tips and nodes of their
> >branches; the rest is inference, however reasonable, not the evidence of
> >fossils….We fancy ourselves as the only true students of life's history, yet
> >to preserve our favored account of evolution by natural selection we view
> >our data as so bad that we never see the very process we profess to study."
> >"Evolution's Erratic Pace," Natural History, vol. 86 (May 1987), p. 14.
> 
> Last sentence is from Quote #14.  The rest needs checking.
> 
> 4) (?)
> >
> >"Although Archaeopteryx is often proposed as a transitional form, "its
> >fossils do not count." Punctuated Equilibria, 1977.
> 
> Don't know if this is separate or somehow linked to the above quotes.  If
> nothing else this idiot won't make it easy.

Gould (and Eldredge, 1977) didn't write the passage quoted above. What
they *did* write is:

     At the higher level of evolutionary transition between basic
     morphological designs, gradualism has always been in trouble,
     though it remains the "official" position of most Western
     evolutionists. Smooth intermediates between _Bauplane_ are
     almost impossible to construct, even in thought experiments;
     there is certainly no evidence for them in the fossil record
     (curious mosaics like _Archaeopteryx_ do not count).

It's now obvious that Gould and Eldredge weren't arguing against
_Archaeopteryx_ being a transitional form, but arguing that it wasn't an
example of a gradual change between body plans. They state that it's a
mosaic, a mixture of both primitive and advanced features. But did Gould
believe that _Archaeopteryx_ was a transitional form? He did indeed, as
can be seen in his article "The Tell-tale Wishbone" (Gould 1980).


REFERENCES

Gould, S. J. 1980. The Tell-tale Wishbone. In "The Panda's Thumb: More
Reflections in Natural History", pp 267-277. New York: W. W. Norton &
Company, Inc. (Originally published in the November, 1977 edition of
Natural History)

Gould, S. J., & Eldredge, N. 1977. Punctuated equilibria: the tempo and
mode of evolution reconsidered. Paleobiology 3:115-151.


[snip the rest]