From: sbradley@scic.intel.com (Seth Bradley)
Subject: Creationist Misquotes 
Organization: Intel SCIC, Beaverton, OR
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 17:53:42 GMT

In article <1992Sep11.231025.5705@cuug.ab.ca> rpjday@cuug.ab.ca (Robert P.J. Day 277-3175) writes:
>  It is difficult to believe that whoever wrote the little blue JW book
>could have actually read Hitching and not continued to read the very next
>paragraph or seen the geological chart.  To present Hitching as rejecting
>evolution is either blindingly incompetent or hideously dishonest.  
>Quite simply, "Life -- how did it get here?" seems no better or worse
>than the standard dishonest creationist dreck one would get from the
>ICR or the Creation Research Society Quarterly, possibly even a little
>worse.  Hard to believe.

I've got another one.  The original quotes are from Dr. Robert Jastrow's
"God and the Astronomers":

(from page 14) "The details differ, but the essential elements in the
astronomical and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same: the chain of
events leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply at a definite moment
in time, in a flash of light and energy."

(pages 115-116)
"...A sound explanation may exist for the explosive birth of our Universe;
but if it does, science cannot find out what that explanation is.  The
scientist's persuit of the past ends at the moment of creation.

	This is an exceedingly strange development, unexpected by all but
the theologians.  They have always believed the word of the Bible: In the 
beginning God created the heavens and earth.  To which St. Augustine added:
"Who can understand this mystery or explain it to others?"  It is 
unexpected because science has had such an extraordinary success in tracing
the chain of cause and effect backward in time.  We have been able to
connect the appearance of man on this planet to the crossing of the
threshold of life, the manufacture of the chemical ingredients of life
whithin stars that have long since expired, the formation of those
stars out of the primal mists, and the expansion and cooling of the
parent cloud out of the cosmic fireball.

	Now we would like to persue that inquiry further back in
time, but the barrier to further progress seems insurmountable.
It is not a matter of another year, another decade of work, another
measurement, or another theory; at this moment it seems as though
science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of
creation.  For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the
power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream.  He has scaled
the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest
peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a
band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."

The following text was described (by a minister I'm debating on a local BBS)
as a single "paragraph", found on page 105.  In my copy of Jastrow's 
"God and the Astronomers", the first section is found on page 14, the 
second on page 115, the third on 116.  This is from "A Shattered Visage", 
by Dr. Ravi Zacharias:

"	The details differ, but the essential elements in the astronomical
and biblical accounts of Genesis are the same...

	This is an exceedingly strange development, unexpected by all but the
theologians.  They have always believed the word of the Bible.  But we
scientists did not expect to find evidence for an abrupt beginning
because we have had, until recently, such extraordinary success in
tracing the chain of cause and effect backwards in time...

	At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to
raise the curtain on the mystery of creation.  For the scientist who
has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a
bad dream.  He has scaled the mountain of ignorance;  He is about to scale the
highest peak;  as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a
band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries."

Not only is the surrounding context eliminated, but the quote itself has
been re-written!  Does anyone have a copy of "A Shattered Visage"?  I'd
love to mail a photocopy to Dr. Jastrow.
-- 
Seth J. Bradley, Senior System Administrator, Intel SCIC
Internet: sbradley@scic.intel.com   UUCP: uunet!scic.intel.com!sbradley
----------------------------------------
"A system admin's life is a sorry one.  The only advantage he has over
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Newsgroups: talk.origins