http://www.cft.org.za/articles/evolution_wrong_mcmurtry.htm
So it end up being 15 pages of text when written out in Word so I am going to cut this into a couple of different parts so it can be read instead of just skimming over it all. Ok so lets get started.
Ok so I wanted to start by doing an in depth talk about the organization of who put this article up. The writer of this article may or may not have anything to do with the organization, and based on where he is out of I would say no. There is not much out there on this organization but based on where their contact information points you towards, see here, I would say they are out of South Africa. I will let you read their beliefs by yourself, see here, so you can get a little more background about them but I just want to quote one thing from them, “CFT accepts the Bible as the inspired Word of God.” That should tell you about all you need to know about them.
So next we will move on to the person who actually wrote the article itself a "Prof. Dr Grady McMurtry". So I did a quick Google search and came across this: http://www.hudson.nu/blog/2008/12/dr-grady-mcmurtry-what-are-his.html. The writer of this article did all of the hard work for me so I suggest you take the time to read most of the article, the part about his family relation is not important to the discussion of his argument against Evolution. I just want to point out that he does have a doctorate but that it is in Theology and that his BS and MS are in forestry a field that is only partially relevant to the discussion on Evolution. Also calling himself a Professor is all well and good but why go by both Professor and Dr?
Anyway enough about Dr McMurtry lets move along to the article itself.
The article starts with the "QUOTES OF THE DAY" (yes if you haven't read the article it is written in all caps), the first one of which is by some fellow by the name of George Washington. Update: It turns out the George Washington was the first President of the United States and some sort of General or something, who knew! :-)
'No people can be bound to acknowledge and adore the invisible hand which conducts the invisible affairs of men more than the people of the United States. Every step by which they have advanced to the character of an independent nation seems to have been distinguished by some token of providential agency. . . . We ought to be no less persuaded that the propitious smiles of heaven cannot be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which heaven itself has ordained.' President George Washington
So this quote is only taken slightly out of context and I wouldn't go so far as to even call it a quote mine. What I would say, however, is that he is trying to put words in his mouth. But don't just agree/disagree with me the whole speech is located here: http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/inaugural/final.html
Now the reason that I say that is not because President Washington was a Deist like so many of the other founding fathers it is because, as you can see here: http://www.virginiaplaces.org/religion/religiongw.html, we don't actually know what his religion was. We don't know this because he like most people felt religion was a personal issue and not one that should be paraded around like so many of our politicans feel they need to today, see here. The President felt, as did most of the founding fathers, that there should be a seperation of church and state and I feel that by using this quote here you are saying that not only did he support your view on religion, which not only do we not know what he support we are pretty certian that he would have disagreed with you based soley on seperation of church and state, but that he felt that Evolution is wrong and that creationism should be taught in schools. This last point is almost certianly false because Evolution doesn't even get published till 70 years after this speech was given so he wouldn't have known about it.
The next quote is by Walter Williams
’ If we are ignorant of the historical sacrifices that made our liberties possible, we will be less likely to make the sacrifices again so that those liberties are preserved for future generations. And, if we are ignorant, we wont even know when government infringes on our liberties. Moreover, we will happily cast our votes for those who would destroy our liberties.’ Walter Williams
So I don’t really have anything to say on this quote mostly because it deals with politics and not science so I don’t see any reason to go into it and I really don’t see the point, so why include it because I promised to include everything.
The next quote is by someone very familiar.
’ The solution to evolution is education!’ Dr. Grady S. McMurtry
Yes it is by our good friend Dr. McMurtry. Now there are many problems with this quote, besides the fact that it is wrong as we will see as we go through the rest of his points. The main one is that he is quoting himself. Now normally that would be normal and in fact it happens all the time in science papers but unless he has said it in another work, in which case he will need to quote it later, he is quoting something that hasn’t been said yet. If I was him I would have included another quote maybe one from a “evolutionist” saying how evolution is wrong, e.g. the Gould quote or one of the many other favorites of creationists to quote mine.
Part 2 can be found here and as always I always welcome your comments.
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