niiicholas
Posts: 319
Joined: May 2002
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Michael Denton has said a lot of things over the years. However on the whole he appears to have moved in a wholly evolutionary direction after he kicked off "the modern ID movement" with his 1986 book Evolution: Theory in Crisis.
E.g., here is a quote that I'd read but never had handy:
originally posted here
From Darwinism Defeated?, 1999:
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In conclusion, I agree with [Phillip] Johnson that the Darwinian model is an inadequate explanation for how evolution occurred. And I think he is right to attack the exaggerated claims of certain Darwinian theorists who extend Darwinian explanations to include all aspects of human nature and behaviour. Where he does this I applaud his efforts. I also agree with him that the living organisms exhibit design. However I am not aware of any convincing arguments put forward by Johnson to show that this design necessitates special creation. I am also unaware of any serious systematic attempt by Johnson to show how the facts of biology, such as those of geographical distribution discussed above, can be accounted for more plausibly in creationist than evolutionary terms. Until he does this, academic biology will not take his antievolutionism seriously.
In his advocacy of special creationism I believe Johnson is merely the latest in a succession of vigorous creationist advocates who have been very influential within conservative Christian circles, particularly in the United States, during the twentieth century. None of these advocates, however, has had any lasting influence among academic biologists. This is not because science is biased in favour of philosophical naturalism but because the special creationist model is not supported by the facts and is incapable of providing a more plausible explanation for the pattern of life's diversity in time and space than its evolutionary competitor. The reason why no current member of the US National Academy of Science is a special creationist is because of the facts, the same facts that in the nineteenth century convinced Darwin and Wallace and all the leading Christian biologists, including Joseph Hooker, Asa Gray, and Charles Lyell, of the reality of descent with modification
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(some typos may remain, I fixed one)
There is no point in quote mining, so whatever anti-evolution statements one comes across from Denton are fine also.
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