Sara Bedford takes A. N. Wilson apart
Following Melanie Phillips' ode to anti-scientific nonsense (that I blogged about here) in The Daily Mail yesterday there are two more pieces from that same publication that I have come across today. One by A. N. Wilson who seems to be making a fetish out of misrepresenting the scientific process (and also invoking Godwin's Law along the way for good measure) and another by Peter Hitchens in a similar vein. The Professor Nutt sacking seems to be bringing them out in droves.
I started to wonder if I was going to feel compelled to spend more time today rebutting this stuff but Sara Bedford has saved me having to do anything at all about the Wilson piece. She's done a fantastic and detailed point by point rebuttal of his piece here. It's well worth reading and I am happy to report she has done a better job than I could have!
Now I just need to find one for Hitchens' piece and I will be happy again....
PS: I am trying to minimise my links to The Daily Mail hence the lack of them but I am sure you can find the pieces yourself if you wish.
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Perhaps I completely misread "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich", but I'm sure I recall that, far from "worshipping science" (to paraphrase A N Wilson's curious appraisal) the Third Reich rigorously persecuted and silenced all scientists - including, most famously, Einstein - whose theories and / or ethnicity did not accord with the Nazi ideal, and chose instead to retain the second-rate sycophants who were willing to parrot Nazi ideology.
Come to think of it, A N Wilson could not have drawn a worse analogy, as the historical parallel proves quite the opposite of his claim: that, in fact, science becomes more prone to abuses when it is politicised (and not that good, sound political agendas are perverted by those evil power-mad scientists ...).
All in all, a horrible article, and a great pleasure to see it roundly dismembered. :)
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