I had a friend of mine about a year ago who came to me with a page that he claimed to have written for himself. It involved evolution and several key points against it. I never thought twice about it. Until recently we talked of it again and I really enjoyed it. It wasn't until about two days ago that I posted it on my site.
He had told me it was okay. Looking back on it I see that for him the entire thing was somewhat of stretch. He is alot like me. While he can do alot of things really good, grammar, spelling, and proof reading do not rank as one of them. I none the less took his word for it. Thinking that it had been wrote by him after intense studying. More the less facts that he had learned that had been placed together. I am not mad at him and have already forgiven him. Here is how I found that the page was not his own.
After I posted the blog another blogger who's page I enjoy wrote me about it. He wanted to use it and I was fine with that. I went to his page today only to find that he had posted it but only through a different source(which is fine except what it lead to mean). The actual writer of the post. My friend has just grabbed pen and paper and wrote about 9 pages of someone's work. A man named Kevin Martin at http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/Evolution%20Hoax/evidences.htm
and also at http://clipmarks.com/clipmark/3FB6ABA7-FD3E-4BDA-AEB4-4E15767CCAEC/
It is a great read and you should go check it out. I spoke with my friend and told him that I saw it. He admitted to it and asked for me to forgive him. I told okay and I myself am also at fault.
Before I post anyones work on my page I should check it out throughly to find that all the sources are credited with their work. That is with any blogger. I moved to blogger from a very good, well established blog for a reason. I wanted to be able to write on a page about things that interest me and peope like me. The people there were much more intelligent than I am. I wanted my blog to be for those who don't work well with big words( big words are great but sometimes you don't feel like looking a;; the words up. I am now learning what my friends at the other blog have already learned.
Research and consistency go a long way. A spelling error can be overlooked alot quicker than a mistaken post.So my friend apologized to me and now I do the same to you. The post will now be linked to these two sites above. Enjoy the post. I know I did.
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4 comments:
No problem. A commenter at an atheist blog posted this site:
Is There Scientific Evidence for the Existence of God? How the Recent Discoveries Support a Designed Universe
Dr. Walter L. Bradley
Hi. Me again. I'm one of the atheists Tim at Splinters of Silver warned you he might drag in, like the cat. But I don't bite. :) I presume you have no problem if I add a little comment here. I like comments, myself. Feel free to come over and do the same.
Anyway. No need to apologize. I think there's probably a lot more plagiarism in the blogosphere than you think. I personally would never take something as extensive as what your friend did and call it my own, but I can't say with 100% certainty that I never inadvertently used a phrase or thought from someone else without attribution. So it's good you forgave him and came clean.
But (you knew this was coming) what he posted as his own, the 17 so-called evidences against evolution, are pure blatant lies and/or misrepresentations, laced with extensive quote mining. All of them are not true, without exception. (the last one is pure religious belief, so truth has nothing to do with it) They are supported only by sources from people with religious motivations, with no or very little scientific qualifications.
They have been rebutted extensively by people with scientific credentials. Most are just illogical, and with a little analysis, can be debunked by a layman.
I mentioned this to Tim on his site, (I think - if I didn't I should), but when this type of stuff is posted by naive or otherwise innocent people who really want to believe it, the side effect is that people who know it's garbage come to the (perhaps erroneous) conclusion that the person who posted it is a moron. It does a disservice to you and your blog to post something like this implying its truth . You lose a lot of credibility for anything else you post.
I know you didn't vouch for its accuracy, but once you post it, it becomes yours, so you need to be prepared to take the heat if someone calls you on it. If I had more time I could find you the information that rebuts all of it, but really, you should do your own research. I'll put some links to help below.
You should also consider the possibility that the reason your friend posted this and claimed it was his is because he really, really wanted to believe it's true, despite looking around and seeing evidence in daily life that contradicts it. Perhaps he wanted to believe it so much, and didn't feel confident in his ability to rationalize or verbalize his beliefs that he could only take someone else's writing and claim it as his own. I understand that. It's human nature.
However, there is a lot of information out there if he's really interested in the subject. I can highly recommend the Talk Origins
site for accurate information on the subject of evolution.
He could start here: 29 + Evidences for Macroevolution
Plagiarism in the blogosphere. Is not right and I will no way endorse it and knowingly use it. Be it preaching, teaching, writing a term paper, or just bragging about what some else wrote as if it was you own, is wrong.
I should have known better.
Tim in no way warned me of any atheist that may work to my site. I am fine with it as I am sure that Tim most likely is fine with it.
I seek to encourage Christians and my primary goal is to tell non-believers what I know to be true. So you are welcome here any time.
I must ask though. Why dedicate blogs and posting about faults of peoples beliefs of God is you yourself do not believe in God? It seems that most atheist are angry at God and Christians. Why? You don't believe it anyway so why get all bent out of shape about it.
I have read the arguments between creationist and evolutionist. We will never see eye to eye on the subject until one of changes the others point of view. I assure you know that my faith is not going to die. At one time I had zero faith in anything. That has changed.
Human nature cries out for attention. I will be honest with you, I think alot of atheist are atheist so they can focus on themselves(no knock on you as I don't even know you). I see alot of that in Christians and but more atheist. I once asked a girl why she didn't believe in God and her answer was nothing more than a self centered answer.
" I found it easier to sleep at night if I didn't believe in a God who watches over me and knows when I sin."
I had an answer about the same when I didn't believe.
Back to atheist on this site. John P I don't care if atheist are here. i welcome you and any one who believes like you. I mean that too. I am not just saying it. I will read your site also and will be sure to give feedback on your post if I feel lead to. Thanks.
I must ask though. Why dedicate blogs and posting about faults of peoples beliefs of God is you yourself do not believe in God? It seems that most atheist are angry at God and Christians. Why? You don't believe it anyway so why get all bent out of shape about it.
This gets asked often. Why do we care what people believe?
In one sense, I do feel the urge to proselytize, but I try to suppress that. But the urge leads me to look at what others believe, and try to figure out why what makes sense to me, and doesn't for others. So it's a thirst for knowledge. Writing about it helps me formulate and test my own thinking. I like to be challenged on my thinking, else how do I know if I am right? Solitary thinking, without feedback, can lead to self-delusion. One needs to have others tell you when you are a fool. However, if I'm told that I'm a fool, I want to know why. I want good evidence or reason for my faulty thinking, not just a scripture quote, or an opinion based on belief.
The other side of it is that there are a lot of very religious people, the wingnuts, if you will, of the religious right, who sincerely think that what they believe about the supernatural influence on their lives is best for everyone, and should be imposed on all of us. We have someone like that in the White House at the moment. The Islamic extremists are another example. It's my life their telling me how to live, and I resent that.
So I do have a concern about how religion is intruding into my life, in ways I don't like, in ways that are even dangerous to me. Look at my "favorite quote" on my site, in the widgets column, near the bottom.
We are not angry at God. How could we possibly be angry at something we don't believe exists? That would be like being angry at Santa Claus, or Cupid.
We have nothing against Christians, as people. We do have something against Christian beliefs, when those beliefs spill over into our lives. I respect Christians. I do not respect their beliefs, because I do not find them based on critical thinking, rather on an absence of thinking.
I base my life on reason. Christians base their on faith. Those are two diametrically opposing views of how to live one's life. Never the twain shall meet. Oh well.
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