From: mikec@sail.LABS.TEK.COM (Micheal Cranford)
Newsgroups: talk.origins
Subject: Re: Opinions on _Evolution From Space_?
Keywords: Creationism Insects Intelligence Moronic Trial
Date: 11 Sep 92 20:40:28 GMT
Organization: Tektronix Inc., Beaverton, Or.

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  Our mainframe has been unable to post news articles for a few months.  This
is a repost of an article that I sent (unsuccessfully) some time ago.  I hope
that you will not find it too dated.

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In article <1992Aug19.021439.8109@sdf.lonestar.org> Corey Carroll states:

     Recently I went to the Dallas public library and got some books
     on Evolution that the JW's _Life_ book quotes from.  I just got
     a chance to look at _Evolution From Space_, by Fred Hoyle, and
     Chandra Wickramasinghe.
       [ ... ]
     They seem to propose that life could NOT have originated by "chance",
     and that it might have come here from outer space on asteroids or
     something, with life's biochemical problems already solved.  This
     seems to just make the question regarding the origin of life harder
     to answer, and it is not really an answer.  They concluede [sic] their
     book talking about some form of 'Higeher [sic] intelligence" and they say
     they don't believe in God, but in something as an intelligent director
     of the origin of life.
       [ ... ]


  Neither Fred Hoyle nor Chandra Wickramasinghe has a clue about biology (their
acknowledged fields are astronomy and mathematics respectively).  Note that the
origin of life on earth is completely separate from the evolution of life (the 
latter obviously presupposes life exists but does not even try to say anything
about how life started).

  Fred Hoyle created a recent flap by claiming that archaeopteryx was a forgery
(his claim has since been shown to be false and based on an abysmal ignorance
about fossils).  Creationists actually flew Chandra Wickramasinghe to the 1982 
"Balanced Treatment of Creation-Science [sic] and Evolution-Science Act" trial
held in Little Rock Arkansas (as their star witness!). [1,2,3]  Unfortunately,
their moronic scheme back-fired in a very large and humorous way.  When cross-
examined about the young earth creationist notion that the universe was 10,000
years old, his reply was "one would have to be crazy to believe that".  Could
any rational scientist believe that the earth's geology can be explained by a
single catastrophe?  "No".  Could any rational scientist believe that the earth 
less than one million years old?  "No".  Wickramasinghe's firm understanding of
biology was brought forth by asking him to read a passage from _Evolution From
Space_ which claimed that insects are in fact smarter than humans but are being
very careful to not let on.  These statements ended up completely undermining
the case of the team who paid his air fare.  Judge Overton expressed confusion
as to why the defense recruited Wickramasinghe; he ended up assuming that it
must have been because Wickramasinghe was critical of both evolution and the
scientific community.

  In summary, the JW's _Life_ book quoting _Evolution From Space_ is merely
another case of (young earth) creationists quoting (ancient earth) creationists
with neither group knowing what they are talking about.


REFERENCES

  [1] Creationism in Schools
      The Decision in McLean verses the Arkansas Board of Education.
        Science, February 19, 1982, volume 215, pp. 934-943.

  [2] Crusade of the Credulous
      California Academy of Sciences Press, 1986.

  [3] Repealing the Enlightenment, about the 1982 Arkansas equal-time trial.
      Harpers, April 1982, pp. 38-78.



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