IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2015 - 9

that one seldom hears of Duesberg,
but the support he gave to a policy
that resulted in hundreds of thousands of preventable deaths should
weigh on his conscience.
Science deniers frequently cite
"experts" in promoting their causes.
Prothero dwells at some length on
these people who, although they
may be well regarded in their scientific specialty, have no particular
expertise in the controversy they
have entered. A case in point is Freeman Dyson who entered the global
warming controversy not long ago. A
distinguished physicist, he is not an
atmospheric scientist, and he caused
great resentment in the earth sciences community. Dyson does not
appear in Prothero's book but there
are other such "experts" who do.
Often their motivation is financial.
Physicist Frederick Seitz, one time
head of the National Academy of Sciences, became a well-paid shill for
tobacco companies by denying the
link between cigarette smoking and
cancer. He was neither doctor nor
biologist. For those wanting to know
about his despicable career, a good
source is Merchants of Doubt: How
a Handful of Scientists Obscured
the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming by
Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway.
I wish that Prothero had considered more those scientific experts
who side with the "science deniers"
not for financial gain but out of an
apparent narcissism. Besides Duesberg, there is Prof. Richard Lindzen
of M.I.T. who would, but for his climate change denial, be well known
only to the community of scholars
in his field of meteorology. Now he
is the "go to" person for climate
change deniers, and he gives talks
magnifying small inconsistencies of
the climate science literature where
he conflates uncertainty with ignorance. One sees these people as
Galileo wannabes. The Italian, now
june 2015

revered, was ridiculed in his day.
Given their agenda, can we
Lindzen, part of the 3% of climate
respect any criticism they direct at
scientists denying global warming,
an evolutionary biologist?
might entertain similar fantasies.
Luskin's dwells on an inaccurate
One of the weaknesses of Prodrawing used in Prothero's book,
thero's book is that it mixes those
taking it as proof that the whole natparts of science denial having seriural selection model is undermined.
ous consequences with those that
We see this in other attacks by sciare relatively harmless. The author
ence deniers: identifying a small
is a paleo-biologist - he knows
error or inconsistency and using it
fossils and evolution. Not surprisas a wedge to attack (or maybe just
ingly, he finds a fat target in the
ignore) the whole corpus of peer
anti-evolution community - both
reviewed literature to which the
the Christian fundamentalists who
denier is objecting. Climate change
take the biblical account of creation
skeptics use this repeatedly.
as a given, and their more comWhat, after all, is so bad about
plicated bedfellows who subscribe
having people denying Darwinian
to "intelligent design" as a means
evolution? Compared to climate
of explaining how humans came
science deniers they are a relainto being; they argue humans are
tively benign bunch. A high school
so complicated that they could not
girl in a bible-belt American state
have evolved by natural selection
must, if she wants to go to medibut only through the intervention of
cal school, accept evolution. The
some master bioengineer.
most insidious effect of educaI wish Prothero could have, by
tion denying evolution is that it
means of a time machine, seen the
can make young people skeptireview his book received in the web
cal of science generally; Prothero
newspaper of The Discovery Instihas the statistics to show that in
tute - an institution devoted to damning Darwinian
thinking. The piece illustrates almost everything
that Prothero ascribes to
The biggest hoax, says Inhofe,
science deniers. The reader should check this web
is the American belief that
site http://www.evolutionnews.org/2013/11/haeckthe U.S. Constitutution decrees
els_embryo079581.html.
separation of church and state.
The reviewer, Casey Luskin,
is a lawyer by profession
although he does have a
master's degree in earth science, a field where, unlike
Prothero, he has little standing. A
countries and states where there
well-publicized statement from The
is major doubt about evolution
Discovery Institute asserts:
there is also significant skepticism
about science, but his assertion
"The proposition that human
that "Creationism is a direct threat
beings are created in the image of
to our health and well-being" is
God is one of the bedrock princinot proved. The American deficienples on which Western Civilization
cies in public health compared to
was built."
other industrialized countries are
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - June 2015