Freethought & Rationalism Archive

06-26-2002, 06:16 AM

This quote was quoted on a creationist site.

"My attempt to demonstrate evolution by an experiment carried on for more than 40 years has completely failed - the idea of an evolution rests on pure belief." (Dr. N. Herbert-Nilsen, Director of the Botanica Institute, Lund University, Sweden)

Is this another creationist misquote or what?

TheDiddleyMan

nogods4me · 06-26-2002, 06:27 AM

I can find no other info on the guy by searching Google or All-The-Web, except the quote you mention on the CSSI website.

Even if true it could simply mean he had a poorly designed experiment. Evolution has been observed often enough for us to know it is true.

Bialar Crais · 06-26-2002, 01:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by nogods4me:
<strong>I can find no other info on the guy by searching Google or All-The-Web, except the quote you mention on the CSSI website.

Even if true it could simply mean he had a poorly designed experiment. Evolution has been observed often enough for us to know it is true.</strong>

Well, I searched through the personel listings on University of Lund, searched their directories, etc, etc...No Herbert-Nilsen. I'd be surprised if they guy ever existed.

This leads to <a href="http://lucat2000.lu.se/en/docOP120.rbs?orgid=011082000" target="_blank">Department of Biological and Earth Sciences at Lunds Universitet</a> for those who wanna check for themselves. (I might've missed the bugger

)

ShottleBop · 06-26-2002, 01:48 PM

Three more sites on which the quote appears:

<a href="http://home.nc.rr.com/gbradburn/CreationBibleStudyWeekOne.htm" target="_blank">Creation Bible Study</a> (attributed to "Dr. Herbert Neilson")

<a href="http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/rossuk/c-prefac.htm" target="_blank">RossUK</a> (attributed to "Dr N Heribert-Nilsson, and stated to have been published in "Synthetische Artbildung," in 1953)

<a href="http://www.harunyahya.com/the_Quran_leads_the_way_to_science03_1.php" target="_blank">Quran Leads the Way to Science</a> (attributed to "Dr. N. Heribert-Nilsson", and footnoted to "The Earth Before Man")

These were found by running a Google search on the entire quote. If you run a Google search on "Synthetische Artbildung", you will get several pages of sites.

Evidently, Nilsson is a favorite. Another quote (lifted from a site found using a Google search on "Synthetische Artbildung"):

Quote:

150 YEARS OF COLLECTED EVIDENCE—*Heribert-Nilsson of Lund University in Sweden, after 40 years of study in paleontology and botany said this:

"It is not even possible to make a caricature [hazy sketch] of an evolution out of paleobiological facts. The fossil material is now so complete that . . the lack of transitional series cannot be explained as due to the scarcity of the material. The deficiencies are real; they will never be filled." —*N. Heribert-Nilsson, Synthetische Artbildung (The Synthetic Origin of Species) (1953), p. 1212.

[ June 26, 2002: Message edited by: ShottleBop ]</p>

ShottleBop · 06-27-2002, 08:18 AM

Having now perused many of the sites making use of Nilsson's quotes, I suspect that creationists may be using carefully selected quotes from his treatise in the same way that they use carefully selected quotes from Stephen Jay Gould's writings. He appears to have been trying to come to grips with some of the elements of the fossil record that led to Gould embracing punctuated equilibrium. (It's hard to tell, given the context in which the quotes appear, but he does not appear to have been a creationist, himself. Witness this characterization of Nilsson from <a href="http://www.unlimitedglory.org/evcha3.htm" target="_blank">http://www.unlimitedglory.org/evcha3.htm</a> :

Quote:

Furthermore, the charts and drawings used to illustrate this supposed change are unfair in that they generally show the smallest known Eohippus, about 27 inches high, alongside the largest modern horse. They do not show us that there were several species of Eohippus which were about the size of a Shetland pony, and at least one modern breed of horse that is only 29 inches tall. This distortion of what the fossil record actually does reveal concerning the horse family is so outrageous, that even Heribert Nilsson, a prominent European evolutionists has conceded that "(t)he family tree of the horse is beautiful and continuous only in the textbooks. # 2

.)

[ June 27, 2002: Message edited by: ShottleBop ]</p>

Michael Ledo · 06-30-2002, 04:36 AM

Nice detective work shottlebop/ Bialar. the Skeptical Inquier had an interesting article this month on the false notion of earth crust shifts and demonstrates the false claims young earthers have made about those fully intact edible Mammonths that have been uncovered.

lpetrich · 06-30-2002, 09:31 AM

I don't have the context of this Nilsson quote; creationists are experts at snipping away troublesome context.

However, the family tree of fossil equines is not a continuous straight line, but is very bushily branched, and it shows Punctuated Equilibrium (species not changing very much, if at all, and new species originating as offshoots of existing species).

06-26-2002, 06:16 AM	#1
TheDiddleyMan Guest Posts: n/a	What about this quote? This quote was quoted on a creationist site. "My attempt to demonstrate evolution by an experiment carried on for more than 40 years has completely failed - the idea of an evolution rests on pure belief." (Dr. N. Herbert-Nilsen, Director of the Botanica Institute, Lund University, Sweden) Is this another creationist misquote or what? TheDiddleyMan

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06-26-2002, 06:27 AM	#2
nogods4me Contributor Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Baltimore, MD USA Posts: 17,432	I can find no other info on the guy by searching Google or All-The-Web, except the quote you mention on the CSSI website. Even if true it could simply mean he had a poorly designed experiment. Evolution has been observed often enough for us to know it is true.

06-30-2002, 04:36 AM	#6
Michael Ledo Junior Member Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: SC Posts: 49	Nice detective work shottlebop/ Bialar. the Skeptical Inquier had an interesting article this month on the false notion of earth crust shifts and demonstrates the false claims young earthers have made about those fully intact edible Mammonths that have been uncovered.

06-30-2002, 09:31 AM	#7
lpetrich Contributor Join Date: Jul 2000 Location: Lebanon, OR, USA Posts: 16,829	I don't have the context of this Nilsson quote; creationists are experts at snipping away troublesome context. However, the family tree of fossil equines is not a continuous straight line, but is very bushily branched, and it shows Punctuated Equilibrium (species not changing very much, if at all, and new species originating as offshoots of existing species).

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