Wednesday, June 22, 2005
To Debate or Not to Debate. That is the Question.
Cornelia Dean has an article in the New York Times that looks at the issue of whether scientists and educators where right to boycott the Kanas science hearings in May. While Dean's article adds little that is new, there is a revealing quote from Eugenie Scott of the National Center for Science Education that explains one reason why scientists have stopped debating creationists and intelligent design proponents:
"Dr. Scott said that until recently she believed scientists should seize opportunities to debate the opponents of evolution. "I was one of the holdouts, saying yes, appear with these guys, yes, tell them what is wrong with their ideas, go to their conferences, treat them like scholars," she said.
"Like other scientists, she said that if someone identified a flaw in evolutionary theory that could not be dealt with, science would have to modify the theory or even scrap it. But the criticisms raised have fallen in the face of scientific scrutiny, she and others say, yet opponents of evolution raise them again and again.
"So a few years ago, she said, 'even I threw in the towel.'"
