In Darwin’s Own Words using the web to combat creationist quote-mining

Hey, that’s not what I said… that wasn’t my intention!

Michael D. Barton http://thedispersalofdarwin.wordpress.com

To suppose that the eye, with all its

inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different

distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and

chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in

the highest possible degree.

- Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859,

1st ed.)

To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different

distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and

chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess,

absurd in the highest possible degree. Yet reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a perfect and complex eye to one very imperfect and simple,

each grade being useful to its possessor, can be shown to exist; if further, the eye does vary ever so slightly, and the variations be inherited, which is

certainly the case; and if any variation or modification in the organ be ever useful to an animal under

changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be

formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, can hardly be considered real. How

a nerve comes to be sensitive to light, hardly concerns us more than how life itself first originated; but I may remark that several facts make me suspect that any sensitive nerve may be rendered sensitive to light, and likewise to those coarser vibrations of the

air which produce sound.

- Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (1859, 1st ed.)

At some future period, not verydistant as measured by centuries,

the civilized races of man will almost

certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the

world.

- Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871, vol. I,

1st ed.)

The great break in the organic chain between man and his nearest allies, which cannot be bridged over by any extinct or living species, has often been advanced as a grave objection to the belief that man is descended from some lower

form; but this objection will not appear of much weight to those who,

fromgeneral reasons, believe in the general principle of evolution.

Breaks often occur in all parts of the series, some being wide, sharp and

defined, others less so in various degrees; as between the orang and its nearest allies -- between the Tarsius and the other Lemuridae -- between the elephant, and in a more striking

manner between the Ornithorhynchus or Echidna, and all other mammals. But these breaks depend merely on the number of related forms which have become extinct. At some future period, not very distant as measured by centuries, the

civilised races of man will almost certainly exterminate, and replace, the savage races throughout the world. At the

same time the anthropomorphous apes, as Professor Schaaffhausen has remarked, will no doubt be exterminated. The break between man and his nearest allies will then be wider, for it

will intervene between man in a more civilised state, as we may hope, even than the Caucasian, and some ape as low as a

baboon, instead of as now between the negro or Australian and the

gorilla.

- Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871, vol. I, 1st ed.)

2008

1997

Back cover: “These relevant quotations bring to light the fatal weaknesses of the entire structure of evolutionism - inadvertently exposed by its own promoters!”

Books

Magazines

Websites

Documentaries

Word-of-mouth

1997

Context of quote-mining

Fits with a variety of ways in which antievolutionists attack the theory of evolution by not discussing the actual science itself

- Attacks on Darwin or other figures in history of science connecting them to Hitler, the Nazis, and the Holocaust, and other 20th century genocides- Connecting Darwin/evolution to school shootings

(Columbine)- Referring to Darwin as a racist (he did live in the 19th

century!) although he was an abolitionist

Antievolutionists can only sustain their claim that even experts in biology doubt their own work if they selectively mine quotes

Quotes are blindly taken, trusted, and then spread taking on a life of their own, without much thought about the original context by those whom the quotes are intended

1997

Resources

The Quote Mine Project, John Pieret (blog: Thoughts in a Haystack):

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/quotes/mine/project.html

Collapse of a Texas Quote Mine:

http://www.anevolvingcreation.net/collapse/

Darwin Correspondence Project: The Complete Work of Charles Darwin Online:

http://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/homehttp://darwin-online.org.uk/

Google Books: Internet Archive:

http://books.google.com/ http://www.archive.org/

I look at it as absolutely certain that very much in the Origin will

be proved to be rubbish.

- Charles Darwin to Hugh Falconer,

October 1862

Nevertheless just to explain by mere valueless conjectures how I imagine the teeth of your

elephants change; I should look at the change, as indirectly resulting from changes in the form of the jaws, or from development of

tusks, or in case of the “primigenius” even from correlation with the woolly covering; in

all cases natural selection checking the variation. If indeed an elephant could succeed better by feeding on some new kinds of food, then any variation of any kind in the teeth,

which favoured their grinding power would be preserved. Now I can fancy you holding up your hands and crying out what bosh! To

return to your concluding sentence; far from being surprised, I look at it as absolutely certain that very much in the Origin will be proved rubbish; but I expect and hope

that the frame-work will stand.

- Charles Darwin to Hugh Falconer,October 1862

A fair result can be obtained only by fully stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides

of each question.

- Charles Darwin

This Abstract, which I now publish, must necessarily be imperfect. I cannot here give references and authorities for

my several statements; and I must trust to the reader reposing some confidence in my accuracy. No doubt errors

will have crept in, though I hope I have always been cautious in trusting to good authorities alone. I can here give only the general conclusions at which I have arrived, with a few facts in illustration, but which, I hope, in most cases will suffice. No one can feel more sensible than I do

of the necessity of hereafter publishing in detail all the facts, with references, on which my conclusions have been grounded; and I hope in a future work to do this. For I am well aware that scarcely a single point is discussed in this

volume on which facts cannot be adduced, often apparently leading to conclusions directly opposite to those at which I have arrived. A fair result can be obtained only by fully

stating and balancing the facts and arguments on both sides of each question; and this

cannot possibly be here done.

- Charles Darwin,On the Origin of Species (1859, 1st ed.)

As an illustration of the change of thought, the lecturer spoke of evolution’s failure as a

strong theory and the downfall of Darwinism. When the theory came out it was seized upon with avidity, and most of the great scholars examined it and accepted it. Now they had given it up. Prof. Virchow in the Edinburgh celebration said evolution had no scientific

basis. No skull had yet been found differing to any extent from the general type. Prof. Tyndall had lately said that “evolution belongs to the twilight of conjecture.” Prof. Huxley, at first one of its strongest advocates, said the link

between the living and the not living had not been found. It must be found to prove the

evolution theory.

- “Turn in the Tide of Thought: Thomas Kimber’s Lecture on Science in Relation to Divine Truths,” New York

Times (Nov. 25, 1884)

In a discourse delivered before the British Association at Liverpool, after speaking of the theory of evolution applied to the primitive condition of matter as belonging to ‘the dim

twilight of conjecture,’ and affirming that ‘ the certainty of

experimental inquiry is here shut out,’ I sketch the nebular theory as

enunciated by Kant and Laplace…

- John Tyndall, “Virchow and Evolution,” The Nineteenth Century (1878); also Popular Science (1879)

A further indication of uncertainty in scientific minds is afforded by the statements of Prof. Tyndall, who, in the Popular Science

Review, says that “Evolution belongs to the dim twilight of conjecture. . . Those who hold the doctrine are by no means

ignorant of the uncertainty of their data, and they only yield to it a provisional assent. . .

(The Medical Record, Dec. 1, 1883)

Probably the following quotations from Prof. Tyndall’s utterances on Evolution, taken from The Popular Science

Monthly, will surprise some of those who have hastily accepted the theory, and based assumptions upon it. “Evolution belongs to the dim twilight of conjecture, and the certainty of experimental

inquiry is here shut out. . . . Those who hold the doctrine of Evolution are by no means ignorant of the uncertainty of their data, and they only yield to it a provisional assent. . . (Friends’

Review, Mar. 22, 1884)

If we believe in a great First Cause, as all rational men must, why not assume that all things, visible and invisible, were the product of a special creation instead of a gradual evolution, as asserted by Darwin and his followers ? If God could create the

earth, the stars, and the mighty planets, of which our world forms only an insignificant part, could He not also, by a special act, have created all the dwellers therein, from the most minute

microcosm up to the most complicated form of animal life? I agree with Professor Tyndall that the whole subject of evolution

belongs to the dim twilight of conjecture. (The Autobiography of Samuel D. Gross, M.D., 1887)

Conlusions

Be skeptical about the use of quotes, whether in reading materials or using them in your own work.

Join in combating quote-mining if and when you come across it. Get it online, whether on your own blog or commenting on others

The importance of source material connects history of science to science journalism.

Attentiveness to objective use of source material, and the ability to find primary documents online, connect the sciences and humanities.

The Big List of History of Science Blogs and Twitter:

http://thedispersalofdarwin.wordpress.com/2010/08/04/hos_blogs

The Giant’s Shoulders (HoS blog carnival):http://ontheshouldersofgiants.wordpress.com/

Enjoy the rest of