I had no idea

[james_davis_nicoll]

As pointed out in email, JEP on evolution.

Comments

[wild_irises]

Neither did I.

[mishalak]

I did not know, but I am also not surprised.

[wild_irises]

Actually (I almost put this in my first response), having watched JEP hijack Poul Anderson's funeral (where he was officiating) and against the family's express request make it religious, I am not surprised either.

I also hate the pseudo-intellectual sounding anti-evolution arguments.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

*headdesk*

"in science fiction biology is the redheaded stepchild that comes to school covered in bruises"

[alienne.livejournal.com]

Of course he doesn't believe in evolution. He, himself, is a dinosaur who's still alive...

[heron61.livejournal.com]

I am always extremely gratified to find out that people whose views I consider to be vile are also provably idiots or fools. It had never occurred to me that Pournelle was either a fundy or the sort of contrarian fool who rejects the evidence of solid natural and physical science rather than merely someone who merely rejects both compassion and the evidence of social science.

I'm now curious to know how many radical authoritarians like Pournelle are in the fact-denying end of Christianity.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Another in the list of people I thought were stupid when I was a kid in the 80s and have only gotten more obviously stupid since then.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

I missed the religion bit, I thought he was just suffering terminal contrarianism. Someone in 1995 said he was a believing Catholic, but I don't find much else on his current faith if any. I do find that defending intelligent design isn't new for him:
http://austringer.net/wp/index.php/2008/07/05/a-pournelle-misunderstanding/

[(Anonymous)]

Well this makes me take his opinion on global warming a lot more seriously. Not.

[jaylake.livejournal.com]

Only mildly apropros of this thread, the first time I ever met JEP (at an awards ceremony), he took the opportunity to gratuitously insult me from the podium for laughs, then privately insult me in the restroom after. This did little to endear him to me.

[anzhalyumitethe.livejournal.com]

Please don't associate him with our avian friends.

[blpurdom.livejournal.com]

Any person whose answer to a complex theory is, "I'm not able to wrap my mind around it, therefore it is flawed and/or unlikely," isn't as smart as he thinks he is.

[mme-hardy.livejournal.com]

Damn. That's wrong. (But you knew that.)

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Perhaps he's afraid he'll come to be considered a RWWINO (Right Wing Wingnut in Name Only) if he doesn't completely fill in his bingo card.

[erikagillian.livejournal.com]

I always assumed Pournelle was a physicist or something, ie hates biology because it's squishy and unpredictable. But he's that most hated of things, a social scientist! Two degrees in psychology and the doctorate in, of all things, Political Science! How come he got into the hard science fiction club?

Clarification: Not all physicists hate everything squishy. Just the annoying ones.

[kithrup.livejournal.com]

I, too, had no idea. When I exclaimed that, Gale said "Seriously? What's wrong with you?"

[florbigoo.livejournal.com]

He seriously doesn't understand Deep Time; probably because of his deep aversion to unbounded morally-challenging complexity in all things.

(I am thinking of that passage where Space Belisarius slaughters the Space Nika rioters at the Space soccer stadium,)

[resonant.livejournal.com]

As Sawyer pointed out in "Illegal Alien", the eye is one of the organs with the most obvious path to development, with benefits to the organism from photosensitive-patch-of-skin all the way through to its current form. And there are multiple different forms present in nature, showing multiple different developments of organs performing the same function.

[icecreamempress.livejournal.com]

Denying evolution would be going against Roman Catholic Church teaching.

[awesomeaud.livejournal.com]

Of course there are holes in Darwin! Darwin was just starting a brand-new science, and he couldn't come up with everything! We've come a long way since then.

[martin-wisse.livejournal.com]

The tell tale sign of the intelligent design loon: being obsessed by Darwin, rather than actually existing contemporary evolutionary biology (aka "biology").

[roseembolism.livejournal.com]

Huh. Here I thought he was at least a science fiction writer. Guess I was wrong. Or maybe right now the Brain Eater is queasily reaching for the Pepto Bismal?

[(Anonymous)]

While I hold no brief for JEP, "Brain Eater" may not be the funniest term to use WRT a guy who's a brain cancer survivor.


Doug M.

[pling.livejournal.com]

I am amused by the paragraph that implies he came up with the watchmaker analogy himself 30 years ago ... as far as I'm aware it pre-dates him let alone his 30 year old essay by the odd century or so.

[wakboth.livejournal.com]

Well that's just natural. They assume ToE was intelligently designed from the start, discounting the possibility of it evolving along the way. Thus, they must attack the original version and the authority of the designer!