Re: Hostility!!!!!!!

[Jeff Poling <jpoling@infinet.com>]

At 01:24 PM 1/22/96 -0500, Ronald Orenstein wrote:
>>   Are ornithologists (especially Feduccia) as ignorant of the mechanics of
>>fossilization as they come off in the articles/interviews they are
featured in?
>
>May I suggest that this varies?  And I can't comment on Feduccia here as I
>hardly know the man - but as an ornithologist (who strongly favours the dino
>origin if birds) might I suggest you come up with specifics as opposed to
>general insults?

   May I suggest that people these days are just a tad too sensitive?
Saying somebody is ignorant on a *specific subject* is *NOT* an insult.

   From Webster's:

   ignorant adj. 1. lacking knowledge, education, or experience 2. caused by
or showing lack of these 3. unaware (of)

   Saying ornitholgists are ignorant about birds and bird mechanics might be
a mild insult, given that's their vocation.  But suggesting ignorance of
fossilization, something one would think is outside the study of extant
birds, is hardly an insult, especially when statements are made ("the fossil
record proves conclusively there were no arboreal dinosaurs" -- Feduccia, if
memory serves, on one of many PBS dino shows or news-stories) that suggest a
lack of knowledge, education or experience (the definition of ignorant)
about the fossil record.

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