Intellectual Dishonesty

Once in a while I read Pharyngula, the most popular of all scientific blogs and once in a while it makes me laugh or shake my head in disagreement with PZ Myers....anyway...

This time it is different and I am happy that PZ did a good job of explaining the latest "clue" of a creationist past.

In their website THE UNCOMMON DESCENT, creationists cite an interesting article that was recently published in PNAS: Two-phase increase in the maximum size of life over 3.5 billion years reflects biological innovation and environmental opportunity.

The author(s) of the Uncommon Descent blogpost cite the authors and give their own creationist interpretation either because they do not understand the article or because they did not read it. PZ Myers explains the article with an interesting example of Australian drunks getting out to the streets. It is a useful analogy.

If you are interested in this topic, read this Pharyngula post and please remember that citing authors in a way that suits your own hypothesis with the knowledge that it might be wrong is scientific dishonesty.