I'm frankly stunned. That was one of the most outstanding posts by a creationist I've ever seen. Arphy understood what Patterson was saying, and he raised the right points and asked the right questions. With all the quote mining we've seen lately I kept expecting Arphy to veer off into misinterpretations of Patterson, but he never did that. He instead asked pretty much the same questions that were occurring to me as I read Patterson's comments.
It isn't obvious that the Earth orbits the sun. We only know this because of mountains of little pieces of data gathered over centuries. We all know about the expanding universe, but how many of us are familiar enough with the detailed data and history to recount how we know this.
In the same way, it isn't obvious that evolution is responsible for the diversity of life. We only know about evolution because of mountains of little items of data gathered over centuries. We all know the basic principles of descent with modification and natural selection are supposed to work, but how many of us are familiar enough with the detailed data and history to recount how we can be so certain that evolution is how it really happened. I hope the evolutionists put in the necessary time and effort to explain it all.
--Percy