Quote mining
Quote mining is a pejorative term that expresses objection when a quote is used against a perceived belief of the person quoted, such as to show a contradiction or demonstrate an admission that a theory is flawed.
According to TalkOrigins.org, quote mining is "the use of a (usually short) passage, taken from the work of an authority in some field, 'which superficially appears to support one's position, but [from which] significant context is omitted and contrary evidence is conveniently ignored.'"
However, this is simply the fallacy of taking a quote out of context. The term seems to be used to suggest or claim that people have deliberately taken quotes out of context, and (b) have done this on a large scale. The term appears to be used in many cases where there is no, or insignificant, evidence of the quotes being taken out of context.[1]
The origins of the term are unknown, but it appears to date from the late 1990s.[2] It is not recognized by any dictionaries. Its most common use is by evolutionists to oppose the use of quotations of evolutionists by creationists that tend to discredit their theory.[3]
Many people, especially in the legal and political fields, use quotes by others against them. There is nothing objectionable about this practice, and the term quote-mining could apply to nearly every legal proceeding and political campaign.
References
- ↑ For example, the TalkOrigins.org Quote Mine Project claims to document many such fallacious quotes, but which in many cases don't stand up to scrutiny.
- ↑ According to TalkOrigins.org, the first known use was in 1996.
- ↑ The anti-creationists web-site TalkOrigins.org TalkOrigins.org claims 3636 out 4270 Google hits.
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