Paul Campos looks at orthodoxy in his column in today's Rocky Mountain News [December 27, 2005, "Campos: Orthodoxy of a liberal sort"]. He writes, "Another interesting feature of orthodoxy is that it tends to cause a species of mental retardation in otherwise intelligent people. Consider some of the justifications put forward for the proposition that it's a great day for truth, justice and the American way when a federal court makes it illegal for teachers to mention the existence of a dissenting point of view to their students: Science has refuted theories such as intelligent design, because science is based on the postulate that theories such as intelligent design cannot be true. It says a great deal about the power of orthodox thought that many people of normal intelligence are apparently incapable of seeing what's wrong with this argument. To quote the philosopher Bertrand Russell - 'The method of 'postulating' what we want has many advantages. They are the same as the advantages of theft over honest toil;' Intelligent design is not a scientific theory, because it cannot be refuted. This claim is true only in the trivial sense that no scientific theory can be refuted from within the theory itself. Consider the theory of naturalism, which undergirds the argument in the previous paragraph. Naturalism assumes that all events have natural causes. Is there any evidence that could refute this theory in the eyes of someone who adheres to it? Obviously not, since any evidence such a person examines will always and already be interpreted within a framework that excludes the possibility of a supernatural cause; Metaphysical orthodoxies about the origins of life, the universe, and everything become something other than a form of religious belief when you use the word 'science' instead of the word 'God.' Even more preposterously, it's asserted that requiring one particular form of metaphysical orthodoxy to be presented in public schools as The Truth allows the government to maintain 'neutrality' toward religion."
Political Wire: "Mark Blumenthal (a.k.a. Mystery Pollster) has a piece in Public Opinion Quarterly on 'the lessons to be learned from the spirit of innovation and openness of the Internet in evaluating new survey methods such as automated polls and those conducted over the Internet.'"
The Moderate Voice: "Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has taken a stand on the domestic spying controversy that is bound to upset both sides in this highly polarized nation: he says that while President Bush could have gone for warrants there was nothing wrong in doing warrantless surveillance in the kinds of instances that have sparked a political firestorm."
Bull Moose: "The budget bill explains why the Moose is not a Republican. The Moose left the GOP because it is committed to comfort the comfortable and afflict the afflicted. That reality is reflected in the recently passed budget bill. In order to pay for tax cuts for the wealthy, pork barrel spending and the resultant deficit, the GOP eager beavers in Congress slashed programs for low income Americans."
Category: 2008 Presidential Election
6:07:42 AM 
|
