Newsgroups: talk.origins
Subject: Re: Darwin's Enigma
From: lippard@milori.ccit.arizona.edu (James J. Lippard)
Date: 11 Apr 1992 00:44 MST  
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Organization: University of Arizona
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In article <1e7L02r7c5PX00@amdahl.uts.amdahl.com>, jloucks@uts.amdahl.com (Jim Loucks) writes...
> 
>I'm currently reading a book "Darwin's Enigma" by Luther Sunderland.
>On page 11, I found the following information quite interesting and
>thought I'd pass it along. Now, I'm not saying this information is 
>true or not, as you will see, you can look it up yourself as I will 
>when I find a library that's open.
> 
>===================================================================
> [...]
>During the next year, the author conducted taped interviews with
>officials in five natural history museums containing some of the
>largest fossil collections in the world. The interviews were with
>Dr. Colin Patterson in London; Dr. Niles Eldredge in New York City;
>Dr. David M. Raup in Chicago; Dr. David Pilbeam in Boston; and Dr.
>Donald Fisher, state paleontologist at the New York State natural
>history museum. Written transcripts of the interviews were given
>to the New York State Education Department for use in the study
>on origins. 
> 
>In these interviews, the paleontologists were questioned in detail
>about the nature of the fossil record from the deepest deposits
>containing fossils to the most recent. Typed transcripts of the
>five interviews were then sent to the interviewees for editing.
>All but Dr. Patterson made editorial corrections before they were
>published for use by educators in various states. 

And Patterson has complained that Sunderland has misrepresented
him (see _Creation/Evolution Newsletter_ vol. 4, no. 6 (1984), pp. 4-5).

Niles Eldredge, in _The Monkey Business: A Scientist Looks at
Creationism_ (1982, Washington Square Press, pp. 130-131) writes
regarding the ICR's Gary Parker and Luther Sunderland:

   The ICR's Gary Parker has been among the more blatant offenders
   [in distorting the words of scientists].  On page 95 of his
   _Creation: The Facts of Life_, we read:  "Famous paleontologists
   at Harvard, the American Museum, and even the British Museum say
   we have _not a single_ example of evolutionary transition at all."
   This is untrue.  A prominent creationist [Sunderland] interviewed
   a number of paleontologists at those institutions and elsewhere
   (actually, he never did get to Harvard).  I was one of them.  Some
   of us candidly admitted that there are some procedural difficulties
   in recognizing ancestors and that, yes, the fossil record is
   rather full of gaps.  Nothing new there.  This creationist then
   wrote letters to various newspapers, and even testified at
   hearings that the paleontologists he interviewed admitted that
   there are no intermediates in the fossil record.  Thus, the lie has
   been perpetuated by Parker.  All of the paleontologists interviewed
   have told me that they did cite examples of intermediates to the
   interviewer.  The statement is an outright distortion of the
   willing admission by paleontologists concerned with accuracy, that,
   to be sure, there are gaps in the fossil record.  Such is creationist
   "scholarship."

David Raup, in a letter to Thomas J. Wheeler dated December 9, 1987 (quoted
in Wheeler's "A Response to D. James Kennedy's Presentations on Creationism
and Evolution on 'The John Ankerberg Show'," available from Wheeler at
426 Deerfield Lane, Louisville, KY 40207) wrote regarding a quote about
the horse series being "phony" (used by Kennedy) that:

   I suspect that much of the quote from the radio [actually television]
   came from the Sunderland interviews.  Although I might easily have
   made the statement about the horse series, I do not remember doing
   so.  In my interview with Sunderland I said:  "Well, as more is
   learned about the evolution of the horse, more separate lineages
   have been recognized and it's far more complicated than early work
   indicated."  I suspect that the quoted statements were actually made
   either by Eldredge or Gould.  I have heard Gould repeatedly
   criticize the traditional museum treatment of horse evolution.  And
   Eldredge said in his Sunderland interview that the AMNH [American
   Museum of Natural History] exhibit on the subject is "lamentable."

Wheeler notes that when he asked Kennedy for the source of the Raup
quote, he was sent a photocopy of a page from _The Quote Book_ which
did not at all match what Kennedy said on the air (Wheeler reprinted
it in full on p. 26 of his response) and does not state that there
are no transitions in the horse series.

>This book (Darwin's Enigma) presents the substance of these 
>interviews through the use of short excerpts and summaries of the
>replies to the questions. Anyone, however, can gain access to the 
>original typed verbatim interview transcripts which were prepared
>for the New York State Education Department by going to any public
>library in the United States and asking for the ERIC Document 
>Reproduction Service microfiche ED 228 056, Darwin's Enigma: The
>Fossil Record.

And this should most certainly be done, as Sunderland is of questionable
trustworthiness (or should I say "was," since he's dead now).

>-- 
>Jim Loucks           jloucks@uts.amdahl.com 
>{apple, pyramid, sun, uunet}!amdahl!jloucks

Jim Lippard              Lippard@CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
Dept. of Philosophy      Lippard@ARIZVMS.BITNET
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721