Re: Phillip Johnson wiki

On 2024-08-30 07:50:27 +0000, Athel Cornish-Bowden said:

On 2024-08-30 02:39:01 +0000, Chris Thompson said:
 

RonO wrote:

On 8/29/2024 2:26 AM, Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:

On 2024-08-29 01:16:08 +0000, RonO said:
 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillip_E._Johnson
 Earlier this month I noted that someone had remove the Johnson capitulation quote from the Johnson wiki.  There seems to be no valid reason for removing the quote, and Athel claimed that he had emailed the editor that made the edit to see what was going on.  I guess nothing has come of the request.

 No. I had a back-and-forth discussion with the editor in question, mainly consisting of me suggesting a wording that he would accept and refrain from editing it back to what it was. He objected to all of these, except the last, which he hasn't replied to. I thought I'd leave it a month and then fix it.

 If you do not get this guys buy in, can he just remove it again?  What were his reasons for removing a perfectly valid quote, and Johnson's admission about the ID scam when Johnson never retracted what he had said.
 In the previous thread I note other people using the quote including Ken Miller in a public presentation, and I do not recall any blow back from Johnson.
 

 It's instructive to look at Laurence Moran's attempts to correct Wikipedia on the subject of junk DNA. A long-term editor/contributor (who is not a biologist/chemist/biochemist) to Wikipedia put up a ream of garbage on the topic and Larry rewrote it. The editor deleted Moran's work and put his own back up. They went around a few times but of course Larry's expertise meant nothing and the buffoon's seniority at Wikipedia meant everything.
 If the person who changed the Johnson page is someone with an ax to grind and has been at Wikipedia for any length of time, it's probably useless to try to present anything (s)he doesn't like.

 In his User Page, GuardianH describes himself as follows:
 "I'm an American high school student from Massachusetts with a passion in history, philosophy, and law along with an additional interest pertaining to sociology and higher education. I write and edit primarily on topics concerning constitutional law and legal scholarship."
 No obvious expertise in Intelligent Design, therefore, but he has been a very active editor, with more than 40000 contributions to Wikipedia. I'm not sure he has an axe to grind, but he's just stuck his heels in.

I have found one suitable secondary source that refers to Johnson's retreat:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/why-intelligent-design-fails
However, it would e nice to have two. It surely must have been mentioned in reputable newpapers: New York Times, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, etc., but I haven't found anything. Any suggestions? Maybe something in Nature or Science?
--
Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles for 37 years; mainly in England until 1987.