Hello everyone, and my senior paper

Hello, Kevin. It's good to have you here.It will be interesting to see what your report turns up.

Nothing wrong with being well-rounded.Some folks get that way by eating lots of pie.Others choose to study history.

Yes, Kevin; you're going to see a lot of that here, and elsewhere as wellfolks who are creationists but accept evolution; who, though they fall for whatever mainstream science has to say, lack critical thinking abilities.They make no headway with what they do; they just replace one dogma with another and carry on their merry way.But as you say, pay them no attention: history certainly won't.

That's nonsense. There are many reasons to post here that have nothing to do with some sociopathic desire to always prove the 'correctness' of one's ideas. My guess is that the professor is already aware of the assignment and doesn't need to be convinced of the value of the questions Kevin is posing.If you don't think his ideas matter, then don't read the paper.

What argument are you pointing out a flaw in? What is the premise that hasn't been defended?

Kevin likes what he studies and thinks it's important. He's not the first person guilty of this, and it's no crime to cry about.You don't think the things he studies are as important as some other things; he doesn't find the things you care about as important as the stuff he studies."Agree to disagree" is, quite honestly, the best way to handle such an utterly meaningless difference of opinion.

Well; Kevin's not trying to practice science with his paper.Kevin is trying to resolve issues with claims about Darwin's religious convictions by analyzing the editions of his Origins. His project sounds very similar to the undertakings of biblical historians who attempt to reconstruct original versions of texts to reveal information about the people who wrote the documents and the people who later edited them.In Kevin's case, however, the people who wrote the originals and the people who later edited them are one in the same, and his analysis will reveal changes in that person over time as he developed his theory, with a particular focus on the religious aspects of his character.I find the project interesting precisely because it has nothing to do with practicing science, but is specifically about textual analysis. And on this I believe Kevin and I see things in common, in that we are more interested in these textual and historical matters than we are in the hard science itself. The hard science is good; but some people just have different interests and their study of the hard science is thus indirect.Why is this a problem? I don't know. I'm okay with it. You seem to be rather okay with it. Others don't mind. But there are some folks here who are lashing out at Kevin at the mere mention of him holding interests in science that don't align with their own.Those people just need to be ignored.Edited by Jon, : No reason given.

These are just opinions and value judgments that Kevin is throwing around.They aren't for anyone to debate because opinions don't matter.

For obvious reasons, factual accuracy is not relevant to opinions.Edited by Jon, : No reason given.Edited by Jon, : No reason given.

Seems like he wanted to introduce himself and talk about his paper.He also let on a little about why he's writing the paper: he thinks the history of science is interesting, perhaps even more interesting and important than the science itself. But that is just his opinion, and although it is the apparent reason for his writing the paper, he has said nothing to suggest he plans on using this as some sort of argument in his report (where it would be completely out of place anyway).I just don't know what's getting everyone so bent out of shape.Can't a man have an opinion?Edited by Jon, : No reason given.

But that's not the purpose of his paper; if it were, then that's what he'd be writing about.But he hasn't set out to argue for the importance of the history of science as a discipline; he has set out to understand Charles Darwin based on his writings and the changes he made to those writings.