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Update.
It was suggested to me that I email Dr. Tour, so I did. I've had to leave links out from this comment because many Facebook groups do not allow them. If you want to see the documents and videos I'm referring to, you will have to google for them.
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Dear Dr. Tour, (tour@rice.edu)
I tried posting the following comment to the YouTube page, "James Tour: The Origin of Life Has Not Been Explained - Science Uprising Expert Interview"
My comment read: "@DrJamesTour, your thoughts on the article entitled "Small-molecule autocatalysis drives compartment growth, competition and reproduction" at Nature dot com, please."
As you can see, I addressed my comment to you. I find that, when I submit my comment, it disappears from the YouTube page. I cannot understand why.
Can you please reply with your thoughts on the Nature article, and on what you think the problem with YouTube might be?
Regards Barry Desborough
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Tour replied to say that I should not have included a URL in my comment. I told him
what my comment was. No URL was included. He did not answer my other question about the Nature article.
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Now this came in from Tour.
YouTube does not accept URLs in comments. Delete the URL and the comment will remain.
The article is wholly unremarkable.
Please do not make it public lest I get overrun by thousands that seek answers to all their questions. See below.
God bless,
JT
Thank you for your inquiry. Please excuse me for having to send you this pre-drafted letter, but it is explained.
[Several paragraphs of religious burbling and excuses for not reading the paper, withheld from the public at Tour's request].
God bless,
Jim Tour
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I replied,
I acknowledge that you replied, but your reply was rather surreal and puzzling. I have told you twice, now, that there was no URL in my comment. I have just tried to comment again and my comment disappeared after a few seconds. For the third time, there was no URL in my comment. What is equally bizarre is your comment that you thought that the Nature article was "unremarkable". I thought that you had an interest in the origin of life research, and this article is directly relevant. The article has been remarked upon and cited many times by many people. You then follow with a set-piece screed giving poor excuses for not looking at the paper, including irrelevant religious burblings. I understand that you are connected with the "Discovery Institute", an "institute" that has discovered precisely nothing since its inception, but nevertheless professes to be science, not creationism. To state my position: I am a lifelong (73 years) atheist. I have no interest whatsoever in gods and Jesus and so on. What I am passionate about is defending evolutionary science. Your videos are exploited by religious cranks who think they undermine evolution. No. Whether life arose by natural means (as Genesis 1 asserts) or whether it was poofed into existence by some unnatural process makes not one jot of difference to evolution. As soon as life appears, by whatever means, it sets about evolving. And your god-of-the-gaps approach is dangerous theology. As the gap gets smaller, your God gets squished. Better to have enough faith in a god who was capable of creating a world that could bring forth life. Regards Barry ____________________________
Update II Tour responded by saying that I couldn't understand because I am not a chemist (he is not an OoL researcher either), and made a whole string of unsupported assertions, making no attempt to try and help me understand his difficulties. He maintains that he has no idea why my YooToob comments are disappearing, and he had nothing to say about the origin of life being irrelevant to evolution, nor about the theological risks inherent in making god-of-the-gaps-arguments, and he declined, again, to make our exchange public, which I found a bit strange. Here is how I replied.
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Dear James, for someone who appears to be so intent on trying to persuade people that life can only arise by magic, that was not much of an effort. I, like you, am not an origin of life researcher, but I am no klutz either. I am a qualified and experienced teacher who has made extensive studies in evolution, creationism and intelligent designer spotting. If you could indicate to me what I need to read in order to understand your problems, I'm prepared to put in the time and effort to learn.
I note that you have nothing to say about scripture asserting the natural origin of life, as it does, nor about it being irrelevant to evolution, nor about the theological risk inherent in your god of the gaps argument.
Again, I ask you consent to our exchange being made public. We might both benefit from the input of other interested parties.
Regards
Barry
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His respsonse: Dear Barry, I do not consent. And it ends here, please. Thank you. Jim Tour
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To which I replied all that there could be by way of a reply, Pathetic.
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