Are doctors scientists? From Chris Mooney, just in time to set my blood pressure up a few notches for the weekend:
“I think today a pluralistic society should have access to a broad range of fact, of science, including faith,” Frist said.
Frist, a doctor who graduated from Harvard Medical School, said exposing children to both evolution and intelligent design “doesn’t force any particular theory on anyone. I think in a pluralistic society that is the fairest way to go about education and training people for the future.”
The next time that I teach number theory, I will teach more than one theory: that 2+2=4, and that 2+2=5. It’s only fair, in a pluralistic society.
there’s a good NYT article today about the discovery institute:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/21/national/21evolve.html
it says that the bill and melinda gates foundation provides $1 million / year!!
my respect for their anti-malaria efforts is fast evaporating…
The point is to juxtapose the intelligent design nonsense (and a lot of other nonsense) with legitimate but unrelated projects. It’s a kind of inverse to “Uri Geller goes to SRI”.
well, they sort of give them the million. from the article:
“The group is also fending off attacks from the left, as critics liken it to Holocaust deniers or the Taliban. Concerned about the criticism, Discovery’s Cascadia project, which focuses on regional transportation and is the recipient of the large grant from the Gates Foundation, created its own Web site to ensure an individual identity.”
i’m not sure what regional transportation and superstition/wishful thinking have to do with one another, but there you have it. though there is some connection for anyone who thinks $1M will make a dent in seattle’s traffic problems.