Wesley R. Elsberry
Posts: 4966
Joined: May 2002
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Design Theory and its Critics
| Quote | | The present book, Intelligent Design Creationism and its Critics, is intended as a sourcebook of materials from both sides of the present debate. The editor, Robert T. Pennock, who is a vocal critic of ID, takes it that ID claims fail more or less on all fronts, and while giving both sides a platform, intends for the present volume to make ID's untenability (as he sees it) amply clear. |
Ratzch apparently does not distinguish an accusation of ignorance from ad hominem.
| Quote | One individual particularly singled out is, surprisingly, Alvin Plantinga, who al-
though an ID sympathisizer is not an ID advocate.
Ruse:
We know that Plantinga's agenda is Christianity. That is fair enough. But it is an agenda backed by a deliberate ignorance of work that is going on today in science. Plantinga is able to talk so confidently about science stoppers only because he has not and apparently will not look at what scientists are saying and achieving. [Ruse, p. 382] |
Ad hominem arguments are irrelevancies directed at aspects of personality. Demonstrable ignorance of topics at issue, though, is directly relevant and is a legitimate point of argument.
Wesley
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"You can't teach an old dogma new tricks." - Dorothy Parker
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