Well, no, it is not fair to say Dennett and Kitche...

2009-10-29T12:13:26.494-04:00

Well, no, it is not fair to say Dennett and Kitcher wrote to defend evolutionary theory. You created a straw man.

Dennett actually misrepresents what Wade was accusing Dawkins of getting his knickers in a twist over. Wade says it was over calling evolution a fact or a theory. Dennett claims it's over contemporary creationism. So throw Dennett's first paragraph out. His second is criticizing the NYT for publishing evolution doubters on its Op-Ed page, not Wade's book review. But in neither case does Dennett defend evolutionary theory. Attacking creationism isn't the same as defending evolution.

Kitcher wrote in to point out the error of Wade's long digression into the philosophy of science. Wade gives comfort to:

"Opponents of evolution [who] slide from supposing that evolution is a theory, in the first sense, to concluding that it is (only) a theory, in the second. Any such inference is fallacious, in that many systematic approaches to domains of natural phenomena ... are so well supported that they count as facts (in the second sense)."

You don't understand what is going on here. Where has Dawkins said "evolution means there cannot be a God"? Here is the underlying meaning you might be looking for.

The main problem atheists have with articles like Wade's, is that it is almost obligatory to purposely poke atheists in the eye with such quotes as Dawkins "has let himself slip into being as dogmatic as his opponents." In this case, Wade is being ridiculous over the theory vs. fact non-controversy. But in general use, this statement is an entirely false equivalency. Believers are dogmatic based on zero evidence. Scientists are very sure of claims that have mountains of evidence. Not the same.

And please, enough with the civility BS. How anyone who has heard Dawkins interviewed can claim he is uncivil is beyond me.

You know, atheists, new or old, can be right sometimes.

Comments on Hallowed Secularism: Darwin’s New Bulldogs

Well, no, it is not fair to say Dennett and Kitche...