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From: ethan@utastro.UUCP (Ethan Vishniac)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: Honesty
Message-ID: <1035@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 26-Feb-85 12:57:29 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.1035
Posted: Tue Feb 26 12:57:29 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 2-Mar-85 05:39:34 EST
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Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
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Paul writes

> My points were two:
> 
> (i)     Patterson accepted a dishonest tactic when not practiced by
>         creationists.
> (ii)    Patterson attempted to trace creationist misuse of the second
>         law to the VN/S anecdote.

Perhaps I should make my point clear.  I care about creationism as a public
issue. (I phrase it that way deliberately).  I am irritated by the casual
abuse of the second law that takes place in this news group.  I do not
care about the history of creationism.  Presumably anyone who writes a book
about it should.  However, bad historical research on one person's part does
not excuse dishonest and/or ignorant discussion of physics by someone else.
I do not think that Patterson's anecdote reveals any dishonesty by the 
people in question.  Entropy is a subtle and complicated topic.  So is
number theory.  This doesn't mean that absurd statements regarding
thermodynamics or integer addition are excusable on that account.


"Don't argue with a fool.      Ethan Vishniac
 Borrow his money."            {charm,ut-sally,ut-ngp,noao}!utastro!ethan
                               Department of Astronomy
                               University of Texas
                               Austin, Texas 78712

*Anyone who wants to claim these opinions is welcome to them*