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Thanks Jonah!!! Great piece.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jonah Cohen" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 1:33 PM
Subject: Re: Scientific American Throws in the Towel
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
institutions.
>
****************************************************************************
*
>
> The link below oinly has part of SciAm's capitulation to creationism.
Here's
> the full recanting:
>
> Okay, We Give Up
>
> There's no easy way to admit this. For years, helpful letter writers told
us
> to stick to science. They pointed out that science and politics don't mix.
> They said we should be more balanced in our presentation of such issues as
> creationism, missile defense and global warming. We resisted their advice
> and pretended not to be stung by the accusations that the magazine should
be
> renamed Unscientific American, or Scientific Unamerican, or even
> Unscientific Unamerican. But spring is in the air, and all of nature is
> turning over a new leaf, so there's no better time to say: you were right,
> and we were wrong.
>
> In retrospect, this magazine's coverage of so called evolution has been
> hideously one-sided. For decades, we published articles in every issue
that
> endorsed the ideas of Charles Darwin and his cronies. True, the theory of
> common descent through natural selection has been called the unifying
> concept for all of biology and one of the greatest scientific ideas of all
> time, but that was no excuse to be fanatics about it.
>
> Where were the answering articles presenting the powerful case for
> scientific creationism? Why were we so unwilling to suggest that dinosaurs
> lived 6,000 years ago or that a cataclysmic flood carved the Grand Canyon?
> Blame the scientists. They dazzled us with their fancy fossils, their
> radiocarbon dating and their tens of thousands of peer-reviewed journal
> articles. As editors, we had no business being persuaded by mountains of
> evidence.
>
> Moreover, we shamefully mistreated the Intelligent Design (ID) theorists
by
> lumping them in with creationists. Creationists believe that God designed
> all life, and that's a somewhat religious idea. But ID theorists think
that
> at unspecified times some unnamed superpowerful entity designed life, or
> maybe just some species, or maybe just some of the stuff in cells. That's
> what makes ID a superior scientific theory: it doesn't get bogged down in
> details.
>
> Good journalism values balance above all else. We owe it to our readers to
> present everybody's ideas equally and not to ignore or discredit theories
> simply because they lack scientifically credible arguments or facts. Nor
> should we succumb to the easy mistake of thinking that scientists
understand
> their fields better than, say, U.S. senators or best-selling novelists do.
> Indeed, if politicians or special-interest groups say things that seem
> untrue or misleading, our duty as journalists is to quote them without
> comment or contradiction. To do otherwise would be elitist and therefore
> wrong. In that spirit, we will end the practice of expressing our own
views
> in this space: an editorial page is no place for opinions.
>
> Get ready for a new Scientific American. No more discussions of how
science
> should inform policy. If the government commits blindly to building an
> anti-ICBM defense system that can't work as promised, that will waste tens
> of billions of taxpayers' dollars and imperil national security, you won't
> hear about it from us. If studies suggest that the administration's
> antipollution measures would actually increase the dangerous particulates
> that people breathe during the next two decades, that's not our concern.
No
> more discussions of how policies affect science either. So what if the
> budget for the National Science Foundation is slashed? This magazine will
be
> dedicated purely to science, fair and balanced science, and not just the
> science that scientists say is science. And it will start on April Fools'
> Day.
>
> Okay, We Give Up
> MATT COLLINS
> THE EDITORS
> [log in to unmask]
>
> COPYRIGHT 2005 SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, INC.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Wayne Watson [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, March 28, 2005 1:17 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Scientific American Throws in the Towel
>
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related
> institutions.
>
****************************************************************************
> *
>
> Sadly, Scientific Magazine has thrown in the towel. What a pity. See
>
<http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=000E555C-4387-1237-
> 81CB83414B7FFE9F&colID=2>.
> Pardon me for jumping the gun on this.
> --
> Wayne T. Watson (Watson Adventures, Prop., Nevada City, CA)
> (121.015 Deg. W, 39.262 Deg. N) GMT-8 hr std. time)
> Obz Site: 39° 15' 7" N, 121° 2' 32" W, 2700 feet
>
> "I know that defies the law of gravity, but, you see, I never
> studied the law of gravity." -- Bugs Bunny
>
> Web Page: <home.earthlink.net/~mtnviews>
>
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