The latest attack in the never ending Texas textbook battle comes from evolutionist James Shapiro, University of Chicago professor, who states that he was falsely misquoted by certain members of the Texas state’s school board textbook review committee. Shapiro explains that he was outraged by a “completely false statement” and that he was “the victim of skillful misquoting for an anti-science purpose.” Indeed, according to Shapiro these opponents of evolution are “trying to confuse and mislead the public,” and are “against freedom of speech in scientific research, honesty in public decision-making, and suitable modern education for the students of Texas.” Shapiro concludes that all of this “sounds counter to the ideals of liberty, democracy and opportunity on which this nation was founded.” These are very serious charges from a leading evolutionist and, as such, need to be addressed. Read more
6 Replies to “James Shapiro Cries Foul: “I was outraged””
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Well contrary to what Dr. Shapiro thinks his work may indicate scientifically (being the unbiased observer in all this that he is 🙂 ), the fact of the matter is Dr Shapiro himself has admitted that he has no ‘real-time experiments’ for what he claims to be true:
So since Dr. Shapiro has no ‘real-time experiments’ to support his position that ‘natural genetic engineering’ can generate novel protein domains, why is it ‘anti-science’ to point this out to him and to others. Although Dr. Shapiro may believe that natural genetic engineering is up to the task, he simply does not have the ‘real-time’ evidence, as he himself admits, to support his claim:
Doug Axe addresses James Shapiro’s mistaken disagreement with Intelligent Design here:
i.e. just as with neo-Darwinists, Dr. Shapiro relying on sequence similarity/dissimilarity data to try to make his case for ‘natural genetic engineering’, instead of relying on ‘real-time experiments’ to support his case, has the very same ‘anti-science’ problem that neo-Darwinism has of assuming the conclusion beforehand to try to prove the very question being asked. i.e. Can unguided processes create information? That is not a minor question, nor is it ‘anti-science’ to ask it. In fact it is ‘anti-science’ to refuse to ask that question!
Of related note:
Also of note, although Dr. Shapiro may think to question evolution is to question science itself (i.e. is to be ‘anti-science’), the fact of the matter is that science itself can proceed quite happily, and I would hold much more effectively, without any reference to evolutionary ideas whatsoever:
Materialists like to claim evolution is indispensable to experimental biology and led the way to many breakthroughs, (in fact as with Dr. Shapiro, many times they claim that ‘evolution IS science’) Yet these experts disagree.
While the intent may not have been to misquote Professor Shapiro, the placement of the citation in the context provided adds little to the point being made. The short quote from Professor Shapiro’s book, (“Selection operates as a selective but not a creative force.”) is very weak and indirect support for the point being made that there is no firmly established mechanism for the introduction of novelty. Wondering if additional citations were listed in the actual report and not included in this excerpt. As to the learned professor’s invoking liberty, freedom of speech, and founding principles, methinks he doth protest too much.
Speaking of ‘crying fowl’
Darwin ‘Wrong’: Species Living Together Does Not Encourage Evolution – December 20, 2013
Excerpt: Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution set out in the Origin of Species has been proven wrong by scientists studying ovenbirds.
Researchers at Oxford University found that species living together do not evolve differently to avoid competing with one another for food and habitats – a theory put forward by Darwin 150 years ago.
The ovenbird is one of the most diverse bird families in the world and researchers were looking to establish the processes causing them to evolve.
Published in Nature, the research compared the beaks, legs and songs of 90% of ovenbird species.
Findings showed that while the birds living together were consistently more different than those living apart, this was the result of age differences. Once the variation of age was accounted for, birds that live together were more similar than those living separately – directly contradicting Darwin’s view.
The species that lived together had beaks and legs no more different than those living apart,,,
,,,there is no shortage of evidence for competition driving divergent evolution in some very young lineages. But we found no evidence that this process explains differences across a much larger sample of species.,,,
He said that the reasons why birds living together appear to evolve less are “difficult to explain”,,
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/darwi.....on-1429927
Like most evolutionists, Shapiro is a gutless swine. He is, in effect, accusing critics of evolution of the very sins that he and his kind are guilty of.
Reading this and going back to the thread about the anonymous donor in Los Angeles, whose message was removed from a museum because it mentioned a creator, leads me to one inescapable conclusion: Darwinists are hypocrites of the highest order.