Reflectories,
I didn't read a lot of the discussion on ad hominems, but I did find that
several people whose input I greatly respect were ignoring Steve Jones
rantings. I had just stopped bothering, but hadn't filtered him out. Steve's
just written a response to Troy Britain, in which he attacks Troy and
ridicules his background. It is THE most mean-spirited trash I've seen him
post yet (perhaps I haven't been paying close enough attention!). I note
below the comments Steve gleans from Troy's web site. Steve states:
> And since "the vast majority of scientists" are not evolutionary
> biologists,
> they would not be entitled to express a view on evolution either.
>
> It would also rule out Troy commenting on evolution because on
> his web page:
> http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/troybritain/troy.htm, it would
> appear that Troy himself is not even a scientist but "a printer" whose
> "general science education...in public school was pretty
> pathetic", and who
> had "never heard much of anything about evolution in public
> school" but who
> had "read and watched TV documentaries on science, nature, and history
> and absorbed a fair amount of information over the years..."
Troy's point was one of *competence*, and he made clear what he meant:
> The fact that Hoyle is an astronomer certainly does not
> disqualify him from
> having an opinion on other areas of science, nor does it
> disqualify him from
> possibly making valuable contributions to them. There have been many
> scientists (and even non-scientists) who have done so in the
> past. On the
> other hand the fact that he has a PhD and is noted in astronomy does not
> make him any better qualified to do so than any other
> non-biologist/paleontologist to comment on these fields. Unless they can
> show that Hoyle has distinguished himself by demonstrating his mastery of
> these fields (despite his lack of formal background in them) and has been
> acknowledged by scientists in those fields as having done so (and I submit
> that he has not), then anti-evolutionists may just as well quote their own
> views on evolution as those of Hoyle.
An individual's formal background does not determine competence, knowledge
of the subject material does. I have only seen anti-evolutionists confuse
competence with eye-rolling dismissal of "elitism", "priesthoods", etc.,
etc. My very first confrontation years ago over this was an unexpected
attack when I suggested someone should be competent in a field for his
opinion to be worthwhile. I was accused of refusing anyone outside the
"priesthood" from commenting. What, do these guys attend classes to memorize
the knee-jerk response?
To find out if this particular "printer" has "competence", I add to Steve's
plugging of Troy's web site at another page. Examine the following link to
the personal library of this pathetically educated person:
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/troybritain/scilibx.htm
How many of you would like to have this library?
Note that Steve has visited this site, and quoted what he likes. Troy
comments clearly on his association with biologists and other changes in his
life on the same Steve quotes from page.
Troy may not have the formal background, but he has worked his ass off to
become COMPETENT in the fields he's interested. I know, because I've given
him advice, and helped him learn the ins-and-outs of doing research. He has
done his own research for years now, and when he comes up against some topic
he doesn't have information on, he finds books (which he STILL blames on me
to his wife as "the demon made me buy it") or he goes home from that job as
a "printer" and spends evenings at the Science library at UC Riverside. I
don't know how many file drawers of articles he has now, but he often
matches me at spending about $30-50 in photocopying per library trip we take
together to UC Riverside, UCLA, and other libraries. Troy haunts to UCR
Science library several times each month. He reads voraciously in the
sciences, and is highly respected by our mutual friends - several of whom
are professional biologists, all are trained in that field. That, my
friends, is gaining competence the hard way.
My exposure to Steve is that he likes to take soundbites from the Internet,
or skim through current literature and comment ad nauseum. Occasionally, he
even has something interesting to say, but the signal-to-noise ratio seems
to be too low for some of us.
There seems something entirely proper about Steve arguing that people
without competence in a field should have an equal voice.
End rant.
Don Frack
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