Physician O Mahoney reveiewed a book by Harry Collins on the problem of science declining in respect.
O’Mahoney does grab on the trends that have taken scientists down in the estimation of the public, and he hits on important things like the postmodernists and deconstructionists, other factors are also discussed as a summary of the underlying tenets of the author. The review is a good review and an honest and balanced discussion of the issues. A most troubling thing that the enlightenment brought us the postmodernist nihilism with its twisting of intellectual disciplines by means of socialist dogma. The result was a disregard of the search for truth, sacrificing empirical and reliable inquiry and rules of science on the political fires.
The reviewer makes a very good point about the social and political nature of current scientific culture, even in places that would seem to be bastions of hard hard science–Gravity and Wave physics would seem to be immune from political agendas? Right?
http://www.drb.ie/essays/how-scientific-inquiry-works
Science, done well, only tells you what is and occasionally what will be. Science doesn’t tell people what to do. For example, genetics shows us why and how selective breeding works. That doesn’t tell that eugenics or genocide are good things for humans to do. Nuclear physics can tell us what happens when you release a massive flux of neutrons in a chain reaction. That knowledge doesn’t tell us that we should or should not build atomic bombs. Kepler’s Laws, with a few tweaks, can predict the future positions of planets with remarkable accuracy. Our ability to predict the future state of more complex and chaotic systems is not so good… Science can help you find some answers. It’s not the universal technique to solve every problem.
This is a great reason not to respect scientists. They keep flapping their lips when they need to keep their mouths shut.
A complete list of things caused by global warming
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
The world was just starting to get over the Mary Shelley mad scientist meme when the climateers got going. We were starting to see good scientists in movies, like Q in the Bond films and the technology guys in the Batman series, Ironman and etc. But even now in every cartoon on TV where there is a scientist the scientist is still of the mad variety.
And when the global warming thing finally goes *pop* we’ll be back to mad corrupt scientists in movies again. Sigh.
Yes, I am a scientist…and since I’m a climate sceptic I must also be mad. QED.
Repeated liars are not usually highly respected, more so when they attack anyone that doesn’t believe them.