Did Eddie Need to Apologize to Coyne?

[swamidass (S. Joshua Swamidass)]

The context was that @Eddie paraphrased him incorrectly without providing quotes. That still stands as a valid complaint. @Jerry_Coyne should look at this article though.

Just to get the facts on the table, @eddie wrote:

@Eddie

Well, tell that to Francis Collins, whose appointment to the NIH was originally opposed, or loudly groused about, by Jerry Coyne. Coyne said that no one who could believe a man rose from the dead should be the head of a publicly funded scientific organization. (I paraphrase.) So the attitude that Christian scientists are smart when they do good science, but dumb when they affirm miracles, is out there, whether you care to admit it or not.

@Jerry_Coyne responded:

@Jerry_Coyne

I’m sorry but you are making it up. I never opposed Collins being director of the NIH. I said I opposed his actions using his position as head government scientist to proselytize for theology and Christianity and to make statements about fine-tuning and the like. And I believe I said several times that I didn’t think he should be removed as director, and that he was a good scientist.

I have criticized the man strongly for mixing faith and science but have never called for his resignation; in fact, I have said the contrary. You can see the posts I’ve made about Collins here:

@Jerry_Coyne

“Coyne said that no one who could believe a man rose from the dead should be the head of a publicly funded scientific organization. (I paraphrase.)”

Instead of "paraphrasing’ (i.e., making up what you think I said), why don’t you find an explicit statement that supports your claim that I said he shouldn’t be NIH director because he believes in the Resurrection. If you can’t find that, I expect an apology.

It seems to me that both things are true. @Jerry_Coyne did oppose the nomination of Collins. @Eddie offered up a very bad paraphrase, that didn’t explain Coyne’s position well at all. He did this without a quote to support it.

@Eddie, to his credit, apologized:

@Eddie

I apologize to @Jerry_Coyne for not checking his exact words before issuing my paraphrase. I will be more careful next time I describe his position.

That is a good thing for which to apologize. He did not apologize for saying @Jerry_Coyne asked Collins to step down. @eddie apologized for not checking Coyne’s exact words.

As for the rest, rather than demanding something from @Jerry_Coyne, let us see how he responds first.