It might be interesting to try and define categories for the half-dozen or so items usually raised by creationists attempting to discredit the ToE.
I think "fraud" should be reserved for cases where someone seems to be gaining something (monetary or reputation-wise) from the exercise. "Hoax" would be limited to those cases designed to be more of an embarrasment to someone or as a sophisticated practical joke. "Mistake" would be all others. It really comes down to a question of intent, IMO.
For example, I'd label Nebraska and Archeoraptor as mistakes. Oyama and (probably) Piltdown as hoaxes. Haeckel's embryos, since he committed the cardinal sin of fudging his data (or at least the drawings) to prove his point, would be guilty of fraud.
Any others anyone can think of?
Edited to say: this should have been a reply to Sylas. Sorry.
[This message has been edited by Quetzal, 02-28-2004]
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