tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608365326748641028.post6827015887611215398..comments2020-08-27T06:55:51.101-07:00Comments on James L. Carroll: James Carroll's Review of The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolutionjlcarroll@gmail.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08870174344823829934noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608365326748641028.post-73349808218967995612011-08-28T21:45:48.588-07:002011-08-28T21:45:48.588-07:00I think your example with the Marsupials quote may...I think your example with the Marsupials quote may be slightly overly critical. He IS correct that we have an evolutionary trail of different creatures evolving in different locations going back millions of years, each connected to different focused geographic areas and trails, instead of a single universal trail going from Mt. Ararat to the rest of the world a few thousand years ago.<br /><br />This general idea is very powerful evidence for evolution, and in that sense he is correct. But the problem is that it wasn't obvious to you (and therefore I assume to other readers) exactly how this difference functioned as convincing evidence. And that is too bad.jlcarroll@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08870174344823829934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608365326748641028.post-15553397171977133952011-08-27T23:32:00.564-07:002011-08-27T23:32:00.564-07:00Dawkins came to my school and he spoke at the bask...Dawkins came to my school and he spoke at the basketball arena. I was interested, being as he's kinda a big whig in his area. Two big points came out. He basically read excerpts from his book then did a q&a.<br /><br />1) His example of man entering a room and is seen on camera, is seen leaving the room and it just happens to be perfect timing for a murder. He likens people denying there wasn't enough connection to the murder as those that say the missing links in the human evolution chain prove that evolution didn't occur. If you've read the book, you know what I'm talking about. I thought it was a good example.<br /><br />2) Like you mentioned, he uses bad examples. One which any junior high student would be able to recognize was that of marsupials and Noah. He says that if the bible were true, then there should be a trail of marsupials who wondered off and took up residence in parts of the world that are along the path from Mt. Arararat down to Australia. And he said, "but there's not." Afterwards, I checked on wiki to see how opposums ended up in the Americas. Well after reading a few pages, it turns out there actually is a path leading to Australia coming from Eurasia where groups of marsupials live. Come on man, that's just crappy work. <br /><br />Like you said, I think there are way better examples he could have used. Of course, someone with a nice British accent speaking on interest subject matter is a draw.Jen and Robhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06748086826650089837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608365326748641028.post-31111008819106258462011-08-22T10:14:47.703-07:002011-08-22T10:14:47.703-07:00That is on my list of things to read next, but I t...That is on my list of things to read next, but I think he does a disservice to his readers who haven't read the other books if he leaves out the best evidence because he figures that it has already been presented elsewhere (in his defense, he does present numerous pointers to "Why Evolution is True" throughout his text).<br /><br />This wasn't a scholarly publication where the point is to present only new material. It is a secondary "popularization" of the science, where the point is to teach people who presumably DON'T already know, and therefore presumably haven't read the other texts. <br /><br />I gave the book three stars, so I too "thought his book was pretty descent", I was just disappointed that it wasn't GREAT I guess.jlcarroll@gmail.comhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08870174344823829934noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1608365326748641028.post-11332557445931890412011-08-22T08:57:28.616-07:002011-08-22T08:57:28.616-07:00Actually, he does explicitly leave a bunch of thin...Actually, he does explicitly leave a bunch of things out, for the stated reason that they've already been covered in other books, such as <i>Why Evolution is True</i>.<br /><br />I thought his book was pretty decent, myself.<br /><br />~Ianianmathwiz7https://www.blogger.com/profile/10861609029093929357noreply@blogger.com