Quote mining

Quote mining is debate tactic that is often accused of being intellectually dishonest. Quote mining occurs when a quotation is either taken out of context or abridged in such a way as to give an impression the 'miner' desires, but which is not that of the original person quoted.

An example of a mined quotation (bold), from the full quote (in italics) which shows the author's intended impression:

“The seemingly sudden appearance of skeletonized life has been one of the most perplexing puzzles of the fossil record. How is it that animals as complex as trilobites and brachiopods could spring forth so suddenly, completely formed, without a trace of their ancestors in the underlying strata? If ever there was evidence suggesting Divine Creation, surely the Precambrian and Cambrian transition, known from numerous localities across the face of the earth, is it. Until almost 1950 the absence of metazoan fossils older than Cambrian age continued to puzzle evolutionists and earth historians alike. Other than the remains of single-celled creatures and the matlike stromatolites, it did indeed look as if larger creatures had arisen with a swiftness that made a mockery of Darwin’s theory of evolution. This notion was finally put to rest, however, by the discovery of the Ediacarian and Vendian fossil faunas of the latest Precambrian age. ” -- Peter Ward, from On Methuselah’s Trail: Living Fossils and the Great Extinctions, 1992.

This quote was used in a post by Intelligent design proponent William Dembski. Critics later picked up on it and accused Dembski of using underhanded quote mining. Dembski, however, responded that the quote was legitimate, that he provided the source and the context was clear. Dembski said the real problem was that supporters of Evolution would never admit to questioning the theory:

Word of advice: if you are an evolutionist and don’t want to be quoted by evolution critics for being critical of evolution, resist the urge — don’t criticize it. If tempted, even if the reality of evolution’s gaping holes is staring you in the face, close your eyes and repeat the phrase “overwhelming evidence” or “nothing in biology makes sense apart from evolution.”

Better example

Here is a better example of quoting someone out of context. Maureen Dowd wrote in the New York Times:

Busy chasing off Saddam, the president and vice president had told us that Al Qaeda was spent. "Al Qaeda is on the run," President Bush said last week. "That group of terrorists who attacked our country is slowly but surely being decimated. ... They're not a problem anymore."

Pres. Bush actually said:

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.

After pressure from bloggers, Dowd did put the full quote in a later column, but the New York Times never ran a correction.

The problem with the about "full quote" from Peter Ward is that it is also a misquote. The bold face part appeared on page 29 of a book, and the italics part appeared on page 35. By running the quotes together, it has been Dowdified, as the bloggers say. Also, Dembski originally just quoted one sentence, not the three-sentence boldface quote. So the above description of Dembski is an example of underhanded misquoting.

External Links

• Selected Creation/Evolution Quotes
• Creation Quotes list from Answers in Genesis
• The Quote Mine Project - hosted by the talk.origins archive