An outstanding article in the most recent issue of the Skeptical Inquirer outlines why scientists get so angry when dealing with ID proponents. Much of it has to do with quote mining. Take the article’s citation of this quote, featured on the blog of one William Dembski, one of ID’s hottest champions:
“The challenge that here confronts evolution is not isolated but pervasive, and comes up most flagrantly in what’s called the Cambrian Explosion. In a very brief window of time during the geological period known as the Cambrian, virtually all the basic animal types appeared suddenly in the fossil record with no trace of evolutionary ancestors. The Cambrian explosion so flies in the face of evolution that paleontologist Peter Ward wrote, ‘If ever there was evidence suggesting Divine Creation, surely the Precambrian and Cambrian transition, known from numerous localities across the face of the earth, is it.’ Note that Ward is not a creationist.”
In actuality, Ward was describing the viewpoint during the time of Darwin’s contemporaries and shortly thereafter. He was not expressing his own opinion. The quote itself comes from his book ‘On Methuselah’s Trail,’ and is found on page 29. Further along, however, on pages 35 and 36, we find Ward’s real opinion:
“Until almost 1950 the absence of metazoan fossils older than Cambrian age continued to puzzle evolutionists and earth historians alike. Other than the remains of single-celled creatures and the matlike stromatolites, it did indeed look as if larger creatures had arisen with a swiftness that made a mockery of Darwin’s theory of evolution. This notion was finally put to rest, however, by the discovery of the Ediacarian and Vendian fossil faunas of latest Precambrian age.
“Intensive searching of strata immediately underlying the well-known basal Cambrian deposits in the years between 1950 and 1980 showed that the larger skeletonized fossils (such as the trilobites and brachiopods) that supposedly appeared so suddenly were in fact preceeded by skeletonized forms so small as to be easily overlooked by the pioneering geologists.”
This clearly shows Ward’s pro-evolutionary, anti-design stance. It’s an important example of why quotes from scientists ought not be trusted when they come from the mouth of a creationist. But more importantly, it highlights the presence of the micro-fossils of the Ediacarian and Vendian eras. It’s important to note that Cambrian fossils did not “appear suddenly” so much as they simply had grown big enough for the human eye to easily spot them in the rocks.
Of course, a creationist opinion from a famous scientist no more disproves evolution than an atheist opinion from a presiding Pope disproves Christianity. The only authority figure in science is reality itself. But creationists cannot think that way. For them, a quote from the Bible can settle a matter. So they try to do the same thing by quoting what they perceive to be scientific “scripture” back at scientists. Sooner or later, they’ll have to understand that this simply does not work.
Eric
