Unexpected feelings of sympathy
Apr. 15th, 2008 09:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sawylI've been trying to read A Theory of Justice, but I've been forced to conclude that I'm just too tired to come to grips with a book so interminable that it's own author once described it as being "...a long book, not just in pages." So instead, I've been mooching through this criticism of Expelled, as recommended today by The Great Octopodal Lord.
Somewhat surprisingly, I found myself feeling rather sorry for all the intelligent design martyrs. Before they sank into the anti-rational morass that is creationism, most of them had respectable careers as straight up scientists. Then they became distracted by the idea that they somehow needed to twist the scientific method into a means to defend their faith. In doing this they may not, pace Expelled, have actually suffered direct discrimination, they pretty comprehensively trashed their own reputations as serious researchers. So rather than doing useful work for the greater good, these people have ended up working for a ruse that is to nobody's — not their own, not the general public's, not the scientific community's, not even their religion's — benefit.
Somewhat surprisingly, I found myself feeling rather sorry for all the intelligent design martyrs. Before they sank into the anti-rational morass that is creationism, most of them had respectable careers as straight up scientists. Then they became distracted by the idea that they somehow needed to twist the scientific method into a means to defend their faith. In doing this they may not, pace Expelled, have actually suffered direct discrimination, they pretty comprehensively trashed their own reputations as serious researchers. So rather than doing useful work for the greater good, these people have ended up working for a ruse that is to nobody's — not their own, not the general public's, not the scientific community's, not even their religion's — benefit.
