The Austringer

Over the summer, Abbie Smith called Michael Behe on statements that he made about HIV in his book, “The Edge of Evolution”. It’s taken two and a half months, but Behe finally got around to saying something himself about the issues raised.

Now, up to this point Behe has had the character of harmless nebbish down pat. But I think that he has been hanging out with a bad crowd. Look at how he starts off his response:

This is the second in a series of responses I’m posting this week, this one regarding the Darwinian website The Panda’s Thumb, where a woman named Abbie Smith questioned whether results from HIV research actually square with the claims I made that little fundamental change has occurred in the virus, even though it attains enormous populations sizes and has a much increased mutation rate.

Although she calls herself a “pre-grad student,” the tone of the post is decidedly junior high, the tone of someone who is trying hard to compete with all the other Mean Girls on that unpleasant website. I’ll pass over all that and try to stick to the substance.

“Passing over all that” would mean actually not committing it to print, Mike. By actually putting it in print, you already have come unstuck from substance and are dealing in simple invective. And such invective… As Abbie points out herself, sexism ill becomes you, Mike. Was there provocation? Sure. She pointed out that you didn’t know what you were talking about. That’s gotta sting.

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