MIDWIFE TOADÂ HAS BEEN A BUSY LITTLE HOPPER. Afflicted with terminal ADD, he has been indulging his latest whim, which is none other that finding the world’s worst web site. This is a tall order, considering the candidates include such paragons as The Time Cube. But the criterion for worst must sink beneath sublime derangement. Toad favors amnesty for undocumented intellectuals. To qualify as the worst, a site must be positively harmful.
For some time now the Toad has been admiring TalkOrigins, and in particular their wonderful Quote Mine Project. This is something to be proud of — confronting wave after wave of presumably self-damning quotations from prominent scientists, including Darwin himself. Reading these quotations, Toad wonders how mere biologists summon the courage to get out of bed in the morning.
As the Quote Mine Project is among the best of the web, surely the objects of the project must be among the most evil — web sites that knowingly publish falsehoods in the name of exterminating materialism.
Here was Toad’s quest: find the most totally evil web sites in the known galaxy, those that most abuse the out-of-contest quote. But that is no easy task. Google provides the means to find sites that publish quotes, but it does not provide any easy way to collect or analyze the results.
Enter the relational database. And about three weeks of Toad’s life. A diligent, if not talented programmer, Toad has exhaustively accumulated every Google found link to the TalkOrigins quotes, nearly seven thousand unique links to the offending snippets, all neatly categorized, indexed, normalized and disgronified. All tied back to the TalkOrigins articles that inspired Toad’s frenzy. The Quote Mine Project has 158 distinct articles. The worst site in the galaxy serves up nearly half of the available offenses.
There are many difficulties in attempting to sort web sites by their inclusion of text snippets. Among the difficulties are typographical errors, variations in punctuation, and the fact that many sites, including TalkOrigins, include the quotations in context. Toad has applied his pinhead sized brain to the task of solving these problems. Some assumptions have to be made. Toad has not checked every quote on every page, but a web site that is avowedly creationist is probably misusing the quotes. Does a bearfabrique in the woods?
Here, without further ado, is Toad’s hall of shame, first installment.
| Toad’s Hall of Shame, 6/6/6 Edition | |||
| Rank | Count | Home Page | Self Description |
| 1 | 75 | http://www.anointed-one.net/ | First of all, you must understand that in the last days mockers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. II Peter 3:3 |
| 2 | 52 | http://evolution-facts.org/ | Filled with scientific facts against evolution, a massive collection, one of the most complete anti-evolution websites on the internet. You have come to the right place. Stay awhile and learn the truth. |
| 3 | 51 | http://www.genesispark.org/ | In the late 1950’s, during road construction in the Euphrates Valley of south-east Turkey, many tombs containing the remains of giants were uncovered. At the sites the leg bones were measured to be 120 cms… |
| 4 | 48 | http://www.bearfabrique.org/ | Greetings, you have somehow or other stumbled upon Bearfabrique.org AKA Ted Holden’s personal WWW system |
| 5 | 32 | http://www.harunyahya.com/ | A sincere person with intelligence and conscience should immediately start to order his life and live according to the moral teachings that Allah has commanded. |
| 6 | 30 | http://www.johnankerberg.org/ | Producer and host of the nationally televised John Ankerberg Show, a half-hour program seen in all 50 states via independent stations… BIBLE FOR DUMMIES |
| 7 | 26 | http://www.godrules.net/ | EVOLUTION CRUNCHER: A Treasure House of Information |
| 8 | 25 | http://www.icr.org/ | We believe God has raised up ICR to spearhead Biblical Christianity’s defense against the godless and compromising dogma of evolutionary humanism. |
| 9 | 24 | http://www.answersingenesis.org/ | We focus particularly on providing answers to questions surrounding the book of Genesis, as it is the most-attacked book of the Bible. |
| 10 | 24 | http://www.creationism.org/ | Each new false religion of the post-Flood period has sought to detract from our Creator and from our responsibilities in this life; evolution’s effect is no different and it (macro-evolution) continues to lack any scientific substance. |
| 11 | 23 | http://www.nwcreation.net/ | Only those who believe the universe and life on earth were created by God are permitted to contribute to this archive of knowledge. |
| 12 | 22 | http://www.pathlights.com/ | An astounding amount of scientific evidence disproving evolutionary theory has been uncovered. Here is part of that evidence. |
| 13 | 21 | http://www.apologeticspress.org/ | In the Doc’s Dissections†portion of our Web site, we provide up-to-date critiques of current issues in science that routinely appear in popular magazines and scientific journals |
| 14 | 21 | http://www.creationscience.com/ | In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood |
| 15 | 21 | http://www.darwinism-watch.com/ | IN ORDER TO CREATE, GOD HAS NO NEED TO DESIGN. THE CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS IS THE PRODUCT OF A DARWINIST MINDSET. |
| 16 | 20 | http://www.bible.ca/ | If a fair maiden kisses a frog which instantly changes into a handsome prince we would call it a fairy tale. But if the frog takes 40 million years to turn into a prince we call it evolution |
| 17 | 19 | http://www.creationapologetics.org/ | …countering the attacks on the Christian faith and by illuminating the propagandized fallacies promoted by the worshippers of evolution who have indoctrinated the moral fiber of Gods creation. |
| 18 | 19 | http://www.kacr.or.kr/ | Korea Association for Creation Research |
| 19 | 19 | http://www.veritas-ucsb.org/ | Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to probe the big questions of life. Where did you come from? Why are you here? How did it all begin? Where are we going? |
| 20 | 18 | http://www.asa3.org/ | The ASA has no official position on evolution; its members hold a diversity of views with varying degrees of intensity. Advocates and foes of evolution alike have often gone far beyond the science of the subject to advance various causes. |
| 21 | 18 | http://www.evangelicaloutpost.com/ | The difference between natural-appearing and miraculous-appearing processes is not whether God is acting — His action occurs in both processes but the way in which He chooses to act. |
| 22 | 17 | http://theunjustmedia.com/ | The IOF kafir troops martyred 44 Palestinians, wounded 183 and arrested 481 others during the past month of May 15 of those martyred were victims of Israeli occupation assassination policy… |
| 23 | 16 | http://www.creationontheweb.com/ | This website answers many of the most-asked questions about God (our Creator) and the Bible. Many today think that humans exist merely because of a freak cosmic accident that had no cause or purpose. |
| 24 | 15 | http://english.sdaglobal.org/ | Seventh Day Adventist: Quotes for Creation |
| 25 | 15 | http://www.biblestudymanuals.net/ | THIS WEBSITE IS AN EXAMINATION OF KEY PASSAGES AND SUBJECTS CONTAINED IN GOD’S WORD, THE BIBLE |
| 26 | 15 | http://www.cft.org.za/ | CFT accepts the Bible as the inspired Word of God and therefore believes that inter alia the following Biblical principles and values be upheld and promoted as the true foundation for a New South Africa |
| 27 | 15 | http://www.parentcompany.com/ | In fact, Science cannot and does not deal with God since it only examines the natural world and does not deal in truth. Truth comes from the Word of God and is revealed by Him in the Scriptures. |
| 28 | 14 | http://www.darwinismrefuted.com/ | Here we will analyze this scientific crisis faced by the theory of evolution. This work rests solely upon scientific findings. |
| 29 | 13 | http://creationevolutiondesign.blogspot.com/ | My commentary on creation, evolution and intelligent design issues. I am an Australian Christian old-Earth creationist/IDist biologist who accepts common ancestry |
| 30 | 13 | http://www.discovery.org/ | The Institute discovers and promotes ideas in the common sense tradition of representative government, the free market and individual liberty. |
| 31 | 12 | http://www.apologeticspress.com/ | In the Doc’s Dissections portion of our Web site, we provide up-to-date critiques of current issues in science that routinely appear in popular magazines and scientific journals … |
| 32 | 12 | http://www.ewtn.com/ | Many today think that the human body evolved from lower beings. If they say that this happened without any help from God, it is atheistic evolution. |
| 33 | 12 | http://www.leaderu.com/ | Telling the Truth at the speed of life. |
| 34 | 11 | http://www.cgi.org/ | The True History in the Holy Scriptures |
| 35 | 11 | http://www.cgiphils.org/ | Tune in to RPN9 every Sunday at 8:30 a.m. for the Armor of God Television Program |
| 36 | 11 | http://www.myfortress.org/ | “The excessive skepticism of many liberal theologians stems not from a careful evaluation of the available data, but from an enormous predisposition against the super-natural.” |
| 37 | 11 | http://www.present-truth.org/ | Why We Believe in Creation not in Evolution |
| 38 | 11 | http://www.trueorigin.org/ | The TrueOrigin Archive offers intellectually honest responses to the claims of evolutionism’s proponents, including but not limited to the Talk.Origins newsgroup and the Talk.Origins Archive website. |
| 39 | 10 | http://www.allaboutthejourney.org/ | Randall Niles was the definitive skeptic, critic, and cynic … Go on a journey with Randall as he poses questions, explores assumptions, and challenges his long-held preconceptions about life, purpose, and meaning. |
| 40 | 10 | http://www.evolutiondeceit.com/ | The greatest fraud in the history of science is unveiled. The real Ideological Root of Terrorism: Darwinism and Materialism. Islam is not the source of Terrorism, but its solution. |
| 41 | 10 | http://www.gnmagazine.org/ | Why are we here? What is our purpose in life? Where are we going? What lies ahead for our families, loved ones and friends? |
| 42 | 10 | http://www.rae.org/ | “Darwinian theory is the creation myth of our culture. It’s the officially sponsored, government financed creation myth that the public is supposed to believe in, and that creates the evolutionary scientists as the priesthood… |
| 43 | 10 | http://www.tedmontgomery.com/ | I believe that it is important for Christians to understand both major views of the creation topic, since Every matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses (2 Corinthians 13:1). |
| 44 | 10 | http://www.ucgstp.org/ | United Church of God – St. Paul, Minnesota |
| 45 | 10 | http://www.wasdarwinright.com/ | This site is dedicated to giving a simple overview of what the theory of evolution says and scientifically based arguments as to why belief in Creation or Intelligent design could be scientifically valid. |
| 46 | 10 | http://www.weloennig.de/ | Wolf-Ekkehard Lönnig: INTERNET LIBRARY |
| 47 | 9 | http://avoiceinthewilderness.org/ | God either created the heavens and the earth and all their host or He didn’t. These options force us to treat the matter of the creation as the foundation doctrine in the Bible. |
| 48 | 9 | http://www.2christ.org/ | But if you refuse to deal with the evidences for creation, you should at least be driven to consider that the evidences against evolution are profound. |
| 49 | 9 | http://www.darwinisdead.com/ | Darwinisdead.com wishes to acknowledge its debt of gratitude to the founder of the modern creation science movement, Dr. Henry Morris, now home with his Creator, LORD and Savior. |
| 50 | 9 | http://www.evolutionisdead.com/ | The discovery of genetics completely demolished the belief that changes could occur in response to the environment. |
Quite the rogue’s gallery. Of course, the variety of arguments is rather limited — all those sites tend to recycle and regurgitate the same old stuff over and over again. Seen one, seen ‘em all.
They do copy from each other, but I’m not sure they want to be seen together on the same page. I plan to develop other lists and host a playoff for the worst of the worst.
Twenty quatloos on the Holden, in that case…
I’ll take a piece of that action. Ol’ Ted’s nuts, but there are some creationist sites that make him look positively angelic…
And the Winner of the First Annual Quote-Mine-Off is……
Over at Darwin Central, some impressively-obsessed blogger has attempted to rate 50 creationist websites on their propensity to use commonly-mined quotes. Methods: (1) start with the quotes in the Talkorigins.org Quote-Mine Project; (2) search for tho…
As the guy responsible for the Quote Mine Project, I have to say that it is not quite fair to include Anointed-one in this survey. If you go to the Introduction of the QMP you will see that the original 86 quotes we ran down all came from that site. A certain creationist (who will remain Nameless) had posted Anointed-one’s list of quote mines to talk.origins, which is how the QMP started. I don’t know why only 75 are still at Anointed-one’s site … unless creationists can be embarrassed.
First of all, my hat’s off to you. Yours is a noble mission, well done.
I don’t think it’s unfair to include Anointed-one. It appears to confirm my methodology. I did not start with any preconceived notion of who the winners would be. In fact, I hardly read anything from any of the sites. This is an exercise in pure, automated data collection, via Google.
All the hits for all the quotes were recorded, as far as Google would take me. For a couple of Darwin quotes, Google returned a thousand web pages, and I have them all.
I haven’t yet tried to figure out the difference between 75 and 86, but I was partly motivated by seeing a particularly vile fabricated Darwin quote taken off a number of sites after being exposed.
I think a Hall of Shame, widely publicised, will influence some of the church affiliated sites.
After rechecking the anointed-one website, the count of 75 TalkOrigins hits stands. Eleven of the original quotes are not currently on the site.
Numbers 46, 56, 57, 67, 68, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85.
a thought…
could an app be designed to scan the tras- content! content on each site and compare the wording, eventually developing a map of overlapping phrases which might indicate the degree of original thinking going on among the ranks of Creation?
It might be… illuminating, the darkness that might reveal.
Alert! Alack! I have been quote mined!…
Whipping the Flagellum in the Quote-Mine…