Hi Russ

An evolutionist would have to answer the problem of how symmetrical features evolve, whether wings or flaps of skin.

Of course if you understand how our bodies are built you will realize what an absurd complaint this is. As I explained the last time you made this claim our DNA contains a description of a hand (for example) and a description of how to build two of them mirror images of each other. Our DNA does not contain a separate description of our left hand and our right hand. This is not new information Russ, we’ve known this for a long time!

Again, the mathematical probabilities of this occurring are not problematic. They are fundamentally absurd.

True enough if you accept the straw man that Russ is painting. If you ignore the well proven existence of natural selection and of the HOX gene complex and it’s like in building our bodies you will indeed be faced with impossible odds for the natural formation of our bodies. Of course these long odds dissolve once you understand that Natural Selection is real and that our DNA is actually quite clever and does contain such genes as the HOX complex that form our bodies by duplication and mirroring of structures that are contained only once in our genome.


This is another of those quote mined items I have mentioned. At least this time it is correctly attributed though you failed to cite back to the original. Darwin said these words in Origin of species in the introduction to Chapter 6. Now the important point when quoting someone is to try hard to capture their true intent. Quote mining is a standard YEC tactic in which the intent and beliefs of the person are ignored in an attempt to mine quotes that say what YEC’s believe not what the person quoted believed. Darwin consistently in Origins opens his chapters with challenging statements such as this which he then goes on, in considerable detail, to answer. By ignoring the context, by actually hiding it as you have done by quoting from a quote of Darwin and not from the original source you are misrepresenting him in a very dishonest way.

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/origin/chapter6.html

It’s considered very dishonest, when quoting someone, to quote from a quote as you have done here Russ. You should always quote back to the original source so your reader can easily see what the quoted person actually said. It suggests a reluctance on your part for your readers to actually know Darwin’s thinking on this which makes sense given how quote mined items are typically used. This exact passage has appeared on quite a few quote mine project websites as it’s a favourite out of context quote from YEC’s.

In Reason

Russell