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Sunday
Mar302008

Molluskan Cross-Stitch

I have just been reading a few posts at the Quintessence of Dust and  DarwinCatholic blogs on how to deal with creationist lies.  The tone of the discussion its rather different from that at ScienceBlogs.  Take, for example, this exchange:

'Darwin': 

My own favorite anecdote in this regard (and my apologies if I've trotted this out here before -- I fear I may well have) dates from my time at Steubenville, when I found myself in debate with a part time Classics lecturer who'd written several articles for Catholic magazines advocating Intelligent Design theory.  (He's since gone on to become a fellow at the Discovery Institute and a prolific writer.)  He asserted that the fossil record contained absolutely no evidence for evolution, and referred, if memory serves, to gaps like that between whales and their land-dwelling ancestors.  Species were always so different, he asserted, it was impossible to imagine one was descended from another.

I pointed out that in less exciting (and far more frequently preserved) species such as mollusks, the sequential species in the fossil record were so closely and clearly similar that the species divisions seemed almost arbitrary.  Without missing a beat he responded, "Maybe, but no one cares about mollusks."

CMinor:

"...no one cares about mollusks."

Priceless.

I'm tempted to do it up in cross-stitch.

'Darwin':

"I'm tempted to do it up in cross-stitch."

Oh! With a little mollusk in one corner with a tear?

That would indeed be priceless. Is there any way I can beg or bribe you to do it

I, somehow, can't see that fitting in very well in the customary flame-fests at Pharyngula.

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