Re: [asa] Jerry Coyne sides with Dawkins and Hitchens

Hi Mike--

I haven't watched the video yet, but I will. Thanks very much for the pointer
and for your excellent comments. The one disagreement I have (with your
comments) is here: "I did not realize that someone as smart as Coyne has bought
into the New Atheist rhetoric." Coyne's behavior in recent months suggests (to
me) that you have substantially overestimated his intelligence. He's a famous
geneticist, to be sure, but his polemics are just plain stupid. When Olivia
Judson wrote a piece on her NY Times blog about "hopeful monsters" he went
after her in a drunken rage, in the process making a complete ass of himself.
(For example, he belittled studies of domestication, utterly ignoring some
obvious biological and evolutionary principles in the process.) Larry Moran, a
fellow atheist, even commented on his buffoonery and suggested that he ought
not be given such a prominent voice.

In a recent evo-devo conference, he seems to have tried to re-cast himself as
a sane critic of evo-devo and not as the sniping punk that many of his
colleagues see; in the process he claimed that the co-author of a now-infamous
attack piece (non-peer-reviewed, apparently), Hopi Hoekstra, had been the
target of Expelled-like tactics. Perhaps he was inspired by the film.

In sum, I'm not surprised that Coyne has made imbecilic comments on the topic
of science and faith, or on any other topic. My reading on him is that he's
just not that bright at all.

Steve Matheson

Links:
Coyne's response to Judson, posted on The Loom:
http://scienceblogs.com/loom/2008/01/24/hopeless_monstersa_guest_post.php
Larry Moran on one of Coyne's errors:
http://sandwalk.blogspot.com/2008/01/macromutations-and-punctuated.html
Post at Greg Laden's blog containing comments from myself, Larry Moran and
others:
http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2008/01/monstrous_hope_reply_to_coturn.php
Post on evo-devo conference:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/04/coyne_and_wray_at_the_oregon_s.php
Post mentioning the Expelled-like threats against Hopi Hoekstra:
http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/2008/04/a_few_random_thoughts_as_i_hea.php

 
>>> "Nucacids" <nucacids@wowway.com> 05/26/08 9:09 AM >>>
Jerry Coyne gave a presentation on Creationism and ID at The Rockefeller
University on May 1. You can watch the video here:

http://www.rockefeller.edu/evolution/video.php?src=coyne
 

What's troubling about the presentation is the last 5 minutes or so, where
Coyne focuses on religion and basically sides with Dawkins, Hitchens, and the
New Atheist movement. He propagates the war between religion and science
viewpoint and argues that we need to "get rid of religion." He plugs the books
by Dawkins and Hitchens. He argues that we need to more publicly express the
opinion that religion is the enemy of science. And then he turns to the NCSE
position and says, "At least do not pretend that religion and science are
alternative and compatible ways of looking at the world." He claims the
National Academy of Science's recent statement is "soft-pedaling the dichotomy"
and describes Gould's NOMA as "hogwash." He even contrasts religion and science
by peddling the stereotype that religious people "blow each other up" while
scientists behave in a civilized manner.

I find this truly disappointing, as I did not realize that someone as smart as
Coyne has bought into the New Atheist rhetoric. At they very least, when it
comes to religion and science, I think he is expressing what Lee Ross calls
naïve realism:

"Naïve realism is the conviction that one sees the world as it is and that
when people don't see it in a similar way, it is they that do not see the world
for what it is. Ross characterized naïve realism as "a dangerous but
unavoidable conviction about perception and reality". The danger of naïve
realism is that while humans are good in recognizing that other people and
their opinions have been shaped and influenced by their life experiences and
particular dogmas, we are far less adept at recognizing the influence our own
experiences and dogmas have on ourselves and opinions. We fail to recognize the
bias in ourselves that we are so good in picking out in others."

http://daily.swarthmore.edu/2008/04/11/lee-rosss-lecture-on-barriers-to-conflict-resolution/

-Mike Gene

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Received on Mon May 26 13:11:21 2008