As with everything else they offer in support of their position, the quotes offered by creationists are notoriously selective and misleading. If (as in the case of the Milton quotes WILLOWTREE offered) the quoted author is anti-evolution, then his word is taken as absolute, objective truth. The assumption is always that the author's sole intent is to destroy the insidious materialist/naturalist/whateverist conspiracy, and his motives are assumed to be pure. Often (as in the case of the countless quotes DNAunion offered) the authors are more or less conventional scientific researchers, but their words can be misread to support claims with which the authors themselves would almost certainly disagree. In this case, the assumption is that the author must have had a rare epiphany in which the truth appeared to him despite his brainwashing by the etc.ist conspiracy.
The most frustrating aspect to this creationist quote mining is its invulnerability to correction. When people questioned Milton's credentials or his grasp of the concepts he was discussing, WILLOWTREE took the criticism as a sign of Milton's maverick insight. When evidence was offered to counter Milton's claims, WILLOWTREE answered that the evidence could only refute him if it were filtered through an evolutionist perspective. Concerning the quotes from evolutionists, creationists still stand their ground even though evolutionists put the original quotes into their proper context: the assumption is that the same scientists can be regarded as reliable if their words support the creationist's claims, but unreliable when they don't.
The cornerstone of creationism is the belief that any support for evolutionary theory is motivated by atheism, the urge to perpetuate the vast cover up, or both. Attempts to counter creationist claims can come from believers or atheists, researchers or theorists, but their opposition to creationism is always dismissed as atheistic folly. Thus, any attempt at rational discourse ends up becoming an emotionally charged battle about irrelevant metaphysics instead of an objective debate about the significance of empirical evidential inquiry.
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The dark nursery of evolution is very dark indeed.
Brad McFall