Rant on Dembski 28 Jul 2009 My good friend Ian Musgrave has just put up a wonderful rant on Dumbski’s latest crap, and it’s also up at Panda’s Thumb. Go read it. Nothing unexpected, Dembski’s usual rhetorical tricks and bad research, but it’s a fun read. One guy you don’t want to get started ranting against you is Ian. Creationism and Intelligent Design
Book Grayling on Fuller 9 Sep 2008 I am presently reading Fuller’s Dissent over Descent, but here’s A. C. Grayling’s review in advance of mine. The money quote: The demerits of ID theory itself – so woeful as to be funny: in this world of ours, with so much failed experiment of life, so much repetition and… Read More
Academe Did Synthese bow to Intelligent Design pressure? 14 Apr 20114 Oct 2017 A while back I published a paper in a special edition of Synthese on “Evolution and its rivals”. My paper was titled “Are Creationists Rational?” in which I argued that yes, in a bounded sense they are. I was very pleased to be invited to publish in this front rank… Read More
Biology Tautology 3: The problem spreads 25 Aug 2009 This post will look at two different aspects of the tautology problem: 1. The public aspect, as it becomes a widely used counterargument to “Darwinism”, and the rebuttals of some public “Darwinists”; and 2. How it played out in the biological and philosophical literature. Read More
Dumbski is deeply scary, this sort of stuff never fails to amaze me, I have difficulty grasping what exactly motivates it. Ian certainly takes the sting out of it not sure I agree with the envy part as such a strong motivator, fear and hatred certainly. Ive not read the book on every-ones lips just now, I don’t think the problem is how scientists communicate science but how a minority of very vocal scientists and philosophers of science talk about culture that is a problem. It’s a problem that Dumbski has picked up on and will manipulate to the full. I think thats something to be concerned about. But this line has made my day “Scientists, fear us, we will take your children and feed them the best available knowledge.” Very nice!
Should we call this dance of politicians ignoring the warnings of science until it is too late “The Musgrave Ritual”?
Off topic. I just used the quote mine on George Wald to good effect. Thanks for that Mr Catshark, nice resource. I was an education officer for Friends of the Earth in the 80’s, public attitude was dire, apart from school kids who always seemed to take an intrest. It’s changed somewhat but not enough.