The Clever Badger I'm not dead yet!

NCSE Launches “Don’t Diss Darwin” Site in Response to Ray Comfort

http://www.zazzle.com/darwin2009

I mentioned in passing a while back that Ray Comfort's organization is publishing a "special edition" of Darwin's Origin of Species, complete with an introduction by Comfort himself.  Comfort has planned to  give away copies of this edition at a number of colleges and universities around the U.S. and Canada over the next week.   

NCSE's Genie Scott recently engaged Ray in a debate of sorts in the God & Country blog at U.S. News , where she expressed criticisms of Comfort's project.  (She was writing in response to his article, here.  The second round of the exchange can be found here and here.)

Comfort's original printing of his edition left out several key chapters from Darwin's original work.  Scott rightfully called him out on this, and evidently there has been a second print run that restores those chapters (but, oddly, left some other things out.)

The "introduction" that Comfort assembled is full of misrepresentations, distortions, plagiarism, and (since he can't refute evolution on scientific grounds) religious appeals.¹ It's reasonably clear that Comfort doesn't expect to convert anyone who already accepts evolution, so the only logical reasons for his "introduction" are to preemptively ensnare readers who aren't familiar with the topic or to reinforce the existing misconceptions of readers who aren't likely to fact check him.²

Enter NCSE's Don't Diss Darwin Institute.  This site functions as an excellent one-stop shop for anyone interested in taking a closer look at the claims made in Comfort's "introduction". 

Among the useful contents at the site are:

• An analysis/synopsis of Comfort's introduction highlighting many of his errors and misrepresentations.
• A resource page which includes a printable flyer and bookmark discussing some of Comfort's broad category errors.
• A flyer by Kenneth Miller of Brown University that fact-checks Comfort.
• A links page with an excellent assortment of informational links and references, including a link to Comfort's introduction on his own site.

There is also a link to perhaps the most useful resource of all - the complete works of Darwin on-line.  You can read Origin on-line, free of charge, and also take a look at Darwin's personal letters and writings that give a tremendous amount of insight into his personal beliefs.

If you happen to find yourself in possession of Comfort's "special edition" of Origin, read it.  But do your homework and don't let Comfort's dishonest, misleading introduction and shady editing fool you.  Better yet, read the book on-line and completely intact, and take the time to understand what Darwin was really writing about.

 (HT to Greg Laden and the folks at SkepChick, and any others that I forgot.)

Jay

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¹While reading his intro, I was reminded of his earlier book, Evolution: A Fairy Tale for Grownups. I have a copy of this insipid little piece of dreck, and I had started a detailed review of it that I think I'll dig out and complete.

²Given the sheer amount of incorrect information in his introduction, I'm inclined to say that Comfort is counting on his readers not bothering to verify his claims.  Moreover, he's implying that if his readers do check into his assertions, they're bad Christians.  In other words, he's backing up his assumption of intellectual laziness on the part of his readers with scare tactics.

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