<$BlogRSDURL$>

MA (Chris D) blogs here as well now. Sometimes.

Saturday, August 04, 2007

The Noble Gag of Science 

Ugh, just got my World Science email newsletter and one of the blurbs was "Dark matter doubters not silenced yet." When did it become the mission of science to silence anyone?

I'll take my science without the sanctimony and suppression of speech, thanks. I thought the idea was to present better evidence, produce better explanations of the evidence, and demonstrate the superiority of the analysis, not to "silence" anyone. Say what you will about the zero-point energy crowd, the orgone enthusiasts, the Velikovskian catatrophists, the Nemesis-theory guys, and the sloppy thinking and bad constructs of a million attention seeking quacks and pseudoscientists: I don't note "silencing" as a key element on their agenda.

Labels:

Posted by: murel / 8:59 AM
|

Friday, July 20, 2007

The Mullahs of "Science" 

I added and removed a post yesterday on this exact subject. At Frontpagemag.com Tom McClintock puts it more concisely than I had:

The irony is that this is the same movement that wraps itself in pseudo-science, and yet declares that those who challenge their theory on scientific grounds “are on a par with Holocaust deniers” (as Boston Globe columnist Ellen Goodman wrote in February) and now, traitors. The Left has taken science, which is founded on a rigorous and dispassionate evaluation of fact and an equally vigorous and open debate of theory, and perverted it into a shrill, self-righteous and utterly intolerant intellectual tyranny. And like all authoritarian movements, it doesn’t take long for a tyranny of the mind (“global warming deniers are now on a par with Holocaust deniers”) to transform itself into a tyranny of brute force (“This is treason and we need to start treating them as traitors.”)


All I could add to that is that, in my experience, this has been the standard misuse of Science-with-a-capital-S. Set up science as something unquestionable, infallible, and holy; declare one's own opinions in tune with "Science;" then howl in outrage if anyone utters a syllable of contradiction.

Labels: , ,

Posted by: murel / 9:34 AM
|

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?