Quote mining
Quote mining is a term used primarily by defenders of the theory of evolution to oppose the creationist practice of arguing by quotation. Quote mining refers to several practices including taking a portion of a quotation out of context, *1cewedg3 was here.
on [1] (bold), from the full quote [2] (in italics):
"To suppose that the eye, with all its inimitable contrivances for adjusting the focus to different distances, for admitting different amounts of light, and for the correction of spherical and chromatic aberration, could have been formed by natural selection, seems, I freely confess, absurd in the highest possible degree. Yet reason tells me, that if numerous gradations from a perfect and complex eye to one very imperfect and simple, each grade being useful to its possessor, can be shown to exist; if further, the eye does vary ever so slightly, and the variations be inherited, which is certainly the case; and if any variation or modification in the organ be ever useful to an animal under changing conditions of life, then the difficulty of believing that a perfect and complex eye could be formed by natural selection, though insuperable by our imagination, can hardly be considered real." -- Charles Darwin, from The Origin of Species, 1859.
An abridged mined quotation [3] (bold), from the full quote [4] (in italics):
"Al Qaeda is on the run. That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly, but surely being decimated. Right now, about half of all the top al Qaeda operatives are either jailed or dead. In either case, they're not a problem anymore. And we'll stay on the hunt. To make sure America is a secure country, the al Qaeda terrorists have got to understand it doesn't matter how long it's going to take, they will be brought to justice." -- George W. Bush, May 5, 2003.
References
External Links
- Selected Creation/Evolution Quotes
- Creation Quotes list from Answers in Genesis
- (Talk.Origins) Quote-mining - CreationWiki
- The Quote Mine Project - hosted by the talk.origins archive