Respect My Authority
Yesterday, I heard some guy on the radio refer to Darwin's birthday. He obviously had some trouble with evolution and thought he made a clever point by noting many prominent scientists disagree with Darwin. I presume he was referring to an overall disagreement with the concept of evolution, since The Origin Of Species is not taught as a textbook and no scientists today swears an oath that he'll uphold every idea Darwin had. (Science is about evidence, not authority, and plenty of things Darwin said were wrong.) But really, this is not a serious argument. I don't know how many "prominent" scientists are on this list, but percentage-wise, it's not a big number--and it gets even smaller if you're talking about scientists speaking within their area of expertise. There are hundreds of thousands of scientists out there, and you're simply going to find a certain percentage who (for whatever reason) take unusual stances. I'm sure you could claim there are many prominent scientists who are 9/11 truthers. So what?
posted by LAGuy @ 12:25 AM
4 Comments:
I'm sure you could even find a number of prominent scientists who deny global warming and that cigarettes cause cancer
Indeed, not to mention a prominent number that deny both global warming and the Easter bunny.
Actually, a much higher percentage of prominent scientists, working within their field of specialty, deny many of the specific items in the general and vague global warming debate than deny evolution. What counts now for them is the evidence, not anyone's authority.
Years ago, an evangelical friend of mine told her young son that if his teacher ever taught him about evolution, he should raise his hand and ask the teacher, "Were you there?" This would serve as a brilliant refutation of evolution.
I kept my mouth shut, but what I wanted to say was that if this logic was valid, the exact same question would be an equally valid refutation of the resurrection of Jesus, or the revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai.
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