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Responses to James Tour - Printable Version

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Responses to James Tour - Gwaithmir - 12-31-2020

I'm interested in finding responses to articles published by creationist James Tour in which he criticizes the latest research into abiogenesis, claiming for one reason or another why it is impossible and never happened. I've done several Google searches for such articles with no luck.

James Tour - Wikipedia
Two Experiments in Abiogenesis | Articles | Inference: International Review of Science (inference-review.com)
Animadversions of a Synthetic Chemist | Articles | Inference: International Review of Science (inference-review.com)


RE: Responses to James Tour - Phaedrus - 12-31-2020

If you haven't had any luck with Google, I'm not bound to either. Tongue


RE: Responses to James Tour - Dancefortwo - 12-31-2020

(12-31-2020, 12:45 PM)Gwaithmir Wrote: I'm interested in finding responses to articles published by creationist James Tour in which he criticizes the latest research into abiogenesis, claiming for one reason or another why it is impossible and never happened. I've done several Google searches for such articles with no luck.

James Tour - Wikipedia
Two Experiments in Abiogenesis | Articles | Inference: International Review of Science (inference-review.com)
Animadversions of a Synthetic Chemist | Articles | Inference: International Review of Science (inference-review.com)

You could start with his creationist position which is nonsense from the get-go.  I've heard of this guy and I think I was arguing with someone on youtube over James Tour some time ago.  

This might help you out, it's a pretty good response to Tour:

https://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2014/03/a-chemist-who-doesnt-understand.html

Edit:

And this:

https://www.skeptical-science.com/religion/claim-renowned-chemist-evolutionists-understand-origin-life/

Another Edit:

Oddly enough, sometimes Quora.com has some pretty decent answers from intelligent people.  The  gentleman named Raymond Griffith has a very good reply to the question, "Why does Dr. James Tour say science refutes evolution?"  It's the first response.  

https://www.quora.com/Why-does-Dr-James-Tour-say-that-science-refutes-evolution-1


Hope these help.


RE: Responses to James Tour - Bucky Ball - 12-31-2020

Tour is a synthetic organic chemist and nanotechnologist.
He's playing around in biochemistry and also somewhere he cooked up a statement about the Bible being literally true.
No serious scholar of thw Bible claims it's literally true, any more. He knows nothing about ancient Near Eastern religions, and after telling Nobel laureate (Harvard researcher into the origins of life) Jack Szostak that he was a "liar", he tried to apologise. Jebus has Tour by the balls. He's not even worth bothering with. He's supposed to be a scientist.
He statement proves he is not. There are some references here : https://betterrightthanhappy.com/a-chemist-who-thinks-he-understand-biology-better-than-biologists/
And he's even *still* trying to push the *complexity* argument, as if it hadn't been debunked 1000 times.


RE: Responses to James Tour - Paleophyte - 01-01-2021

(12-31-2020, 12:45 PM)Gwaithmir Wrote: I'm interested in finding responses to articles published by creationist James Tour in which he criticizes the latest research into abiogenesis, claiming for one reason or another why it is impossible and never happened. I've done several Google searches for such articles with no luck.

James Tour - Wikipedia
Two Experiments in Abiogenesis | Articles | Inference: International Review of Science (inference-review.com)
Animadversions of a Synthetic Chemist | Articles | Inference: International Review of Science (inference-review.com)

There isn't much to respond to with Tour. He isn't an ID proponent because he recognizes that ID has no scientific merit. The evangelical crowd likes him because all he says is "I'm a respected synthetic chemist who doesn't believe that abiogenesis is possible." That's hard to attack because it's true but useless. His "contribution" to the field boils down to poking holes in other people's work from the safety of his blog. The rest can be boiled down to "I'm a synthetic chemist who doesn't understand biology."

Some of his work has obvious mistakes. One of his criticisms is that many of the precursors necessary for life (and how do we know what these precursors are?) break down rapidly in air. This either demonstrates a lack of understanding of the conditions in which life arose, conditions that we conspicuously free of anything that you might be able to survive breathing, or a penchant for building evangelical strawmen with little scientific merit. Regardless of which it is, it's wrong.


RE: Responses to James Tour - Cheerful Charlie - 01-01-2021

(12-31-2020, 12:45 PM)Gwaithmir Wrote: I'm interested in finding responses to articles published by creationist James Tour in which he criticizes the latest research into abiogenesis, claiming for one reason or another why it is impossible and never happened. I've done several Google searches for such articles with no luck.

James Tour - Wikipedia
Two Experiments in Abiogenesis | Articles | Inference: International Review of Science (inference-review.com)
Animadversions of a Synthetic Chemist | Articles | Inference: International Review of Science (inference-review.com)

Google, you tube, James Tour.  Seems to be a number of hits there.


RE: Responses to James Tour - SYZ - 01-01-2021

FreethoughtBlogs-Pharyngula.

"The IDiots are crowing: they found a scientist who doesn’t understand evolution.
One catch that they don’t think is very important: he’s a synthetic chemist."


RE: Responses to James Tour - Gwaithmir - 01-01-2021

Thanks, everyone! I don't know why I wasn't able to find any of that stuff via Google. Anyway, I posted the links on YouTube where I was discussing Tour's "work" with a creationist. It probably won't do anything for his edification and I expect a string of denials followed by a list of links to creationist videos. Hopefully, it will be for the benefit of those who are following the discussion with the idea of learning something.