Collapse!
During chairman McLeroy's recitation of his list of quotes, he stated that reading books about evolution is "one of [his] hobbies."
We can certainly relate to that.
However, as the evidence below demonstrates, it appears that Dr. McLeroy may not have read all of the sources on his list. In fact, it appears he may have plagiarized some of his quotes from a Creationist website called "Genesis Park."
How can we tell?
Well, the first indication was that the sequence of the quotes is identical. Second, the quotes themselves are nearly identical, with two quotes slightly shortened in McLeroy's presentation. Third, the punctuation used in the quotes is nearly identical, with slight corrections apparently made by McLeroy (errant question marks were replaced by apostrophes). Finally, the citation style used in each list is identical, and yet different from the style used in the other quotes on Dr. McLeroy's handout.
In additon to of all of this, the most definitive evidence in support of the "copy and paste" hypothesis is the existence of a citation error in both lists. As indicated in red below, one of the identical quotes was incorrectly cited as appearing on page 752 when it actually appears on page 750 of Stephen Jay Gould's book.
Again, you don't have to take our word for it.
You can examine the quotes for yourself:
| Quotes as presented on "Genesis Park" website | Quotes as presented by McLeroy |
| "...the tale itself illustrates the central fact of the fossil record so well [the] geologically abrupt origin and subsequent extended stasis of most species...Anatomy may fluctuate through time, but the last remnants of a species look pretty much like the first representatives." (p. 749.) | "...Anatomy may fluctuate through time, but the last remnants of a species look pretty much like the first representatives." (p. 749.) [Stasis] |
| "...the greatest and most biologically astute paleontologist of the 20th century...acknowledged the literal appearance of stasis and geologically abrupt origin as the outstanding general fact of the fossil record and as a pattern which would ?pose one of the most important theoretical problems in the whole history of life.'" (p. 755 quoting George Gaylord Simpson.) | "...the greatest and most biologically astute paleontologist of the 20th century...acknowledged the literal appearance of stasis and geologically abrupt origin as the outstanding general fact of the fossil record and as a pattern which would 'pose one of the most important theoretical problems in the whole history of life.'" (p. 755 quoting George Gaylord Simpson.) [Sudden Apearance, Stasis] |
| "...the long term stasis following geologically abrupt origin of most fossil morphospecies, has always been recognized by professional paleontologists." (p. 752.) | "...the long term stasis following geologically abrupt origin of most fossil morphospecies, has always been recognized by professional paleontologists." (p. 752.) [Sudden appearance] |
| "The great majority of species do not show any appreciable evolutionary change at all. These species appear in the section (first occurrence) without obvious ancestors in the underlying beds, are stable once established and disappear higher up without leaving any descendants." (p. 753.) | "The great majority of species do not show any appreciable evolutionary change at all. These species appear in the section (first occurrence) without obvious ancestors in the underlying beds, are stable once established and disappear higher up without leaving any descendants." (p. 753.) [Sudden appearance] [Stasis] |
| "...but stasis is data... Say it ten times before breakfast every day for a week, and the argument will surely seep in by osmosis: ?stasis is data; stasis is data'..." (p. 759.) | "...but stasis is data... Say it ten times before breakfast every day for a week, and the argument will surely seep in by osmosis: 'stasis is data; stasis is data'..." (p. 759.) [Stasis] |
|
Gould debunks the: "exceedingly few cases that became textbook ?classics' of coiling of Gryphaea and the increasing body size of the horses etc." (p. 760.). "Indeed proclamations for the supposed ?truth' of gradualism - asserted against every working paleontologist's knowledge of its rarity - emerged largely from such a restriction of attention to exceedingly rare cases under the false belief that they alone provided a record of evolution at all! The falsification of most ?textbook classics' upon restudy only accentuates the fallacy of the ?case study' method and its root in prior expectation rather than objective reading of the fossil record." (p. 773.) |
"Indeed proclamations for the supposed 'truth' of gradualism - asserted against every working paleontologist's knowledge of its rarity - emerged largely from such a restriction of attention to exceedingly rare cases under the false belief that they alone provided a record of evolution at all! The falsification of most 'textbook classics' upon restudy only accentuates the fallacy of the 'case study' method and its root in prior expectation rather than objective reading of the fossil record." (p. 773.) |
Incidentally, this citation error appears to have originated in a
book review written in 2002 published in 2004 by someone named Don Moeller. All of the
quotes above can also be found within that review, along with the citation
error. That means, assuming that the above evidence isn't just an amazing
coincidence, Dr. McLeroy actually plagiarized a list of quotes that were
transcribed by someone else who was reading some other guy's review of the book
that McLeroy claimed to have read. *
Did you follow all of that?
Good.
So why does any of this matter? Why should you care about poor scholarship and an apparent lack of academic integrity on the part of the Chairman of the Texas Board of Education?
Proceed to the conclusion to find out.