Thursday, November 30, 2006

The science fundies

I don't want to give the impression that I see fundamentalism as a problem that only occurs within religion.

The British Association for the Advancement of Science recently invited some of the UK's top parapsychologists to speak at one of their meetings.

Take a look at what some of our fundamentalist scientists had to say about that.

Yes, science has its blinkered, no-way-but-my-way, close-minded arrogant idiots too.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Rom, I am not entirely sure that there aren't more of those that we realize.

Romulus Crowe said...

Oh, there are very, very many of them. Most are not openly vocal, but if you try to get funding for paranormal research you'll soon realise you've been tagged 'nut' from the outset. Many of those who might be interested are put off by this. You need to be bloody-minded and able to laugh off the derision of the Great Ones in this line of work.

It wouldn't be so bad if they'd investigated the subject and come to a logical conclusion based on the evidence they'd examined. Instead, they prefer not to read the evidence, but to assume it's going to be nonsense.

There's a whole mass of scientists who choose to ignore an entire area of study just because they've been told it's wrong.

Fortunately, we don't all do as we're told.

Anonymous said...

I followed the link and one thing led to another, and two or three hours later, I'm back and my head is swimming.

Romulus Crowe said...

It does resemble Pandora's box when so much information is stacked in one place :)

Perhaps I should have posted a warning.

Anonymous said...

Ha! Rom isn't afraid of ghosts, but Beta has him terrified. : ) (I don't blame you)

tom sheepandgoats said...

“people think new truths are accepted when the proponents are able to convince the opponents. Instead, the opponents of the truth gradually die, and a new generation comes along who is familiar with the idea.” Max Planke

No, scientists are not immune, as they would have us believe. They are every bit as capable of pig-headedness as anyone else.

Victor Allen Winters said...

That very first comment was me. Not sure how I became anonymous.

Romulus Crowe said...

Victor, I think that was labelled as you before the upgrade. Looks like it didn't come through totally unscathed after all.

Tom - people often forget that scientists are human, so the scientific community contains representatives of all kinds of people. There was a high-profile case recently in cloning research, where a well-known scientist was caught fiddling results. There have been others, in other fields also.

No, scientists aren't perfect - any group claiming that all its members are free of faults should be treated with suspicion!

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