Show Me The Science
Dr. Daniel C. Dennett published an op-ed piece in the Week in Review section of the NY times on August 28th titled Show Me The Science which illuminates the Intelligent Design "controversy". Here is a link to the essay at The Edge (a site that does not require registration as the Times does).
Dennett states in the essay:
... the proponents of intelligent design use a ploy that works something like this. First you misuse or misdescribe some scientist's work. Then you get an angry rebuttal. Then, instead of dealing forthrightly with the charges leveled, you cite the rebuttal as evidence that there is a "controversy" to teach.
Note that the trick is content-free. You can use it on any topic. "Smith's work in geology supports my argument that the earth is flat," you say, misrepresenting Smith's work. When Smith responds with a denunciation of your misuse of her work, you respond, saying something like: "See what a controversy we have here? Professor Smith and I are locked in a titanic scientific debate. We should teach the controversy in the classrooms." And here is the delicious part: you can often exploit the very technicality of the issues to your own advantage, counting on most of us to miss the point in all the difficult details.
(...snip)
Since there is no content, there is no "controversy'' to teach about in biology class. But here is a good topic for a high school course on current events and politics: Is intelligent design a hoax? And if so, how was it perpetrated?
Dr. Dennett is a Director of the Center for Cognitive Studies, University Professor and Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. He is also prolific author of fascinating books including Consciousness Explained
Update - September 1, 2005:
In Dr. Dennett's piece he stated:
Instead of spending more than $1 million a year on publishing books and articles for non-scientists and on other public relations efforts, the Discovery Institute should finance its own peer-reviewed electronic journal.
This raised a question about the purported peer-reviewed publications on the Discovery Institute's site. I queried Dr. Dennett about these references and he has graciously allowed me to quote his response:
"The list they provide is informative—and pathetic. Less than a dozen papers, some not very recent, and none in good journals, and mostly on minor and dubious points. And insofar as anybody has responded to them, it has been to point out the errors in them. Their entire output in the last decade is less than the peer-reviewed publications that many a good scientist racks up in a year. "
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