In regards to my previous post where I ranted about those two goofballs who were writing about science's intolerance of religion, I found this on PZ Myers' Pharyngula blog.
It is something that brings me pleasure to no end. You can always spot real science by looking at papers written on the subject a number of years ago. In this case, a quarter century.
In real science, the works done decades ago are almost quaint in the simplicity of their knowledge. What they are writing about and what they discuss has changed drastically compared to now. Conclusions are different, directions of research have changed, and what people know and what they think they know are in a different dimension.
Pseudo-science, religion, and just general bullshit never changes. It's the exact same arguments laid out by the exact same people. Oh sure, the names change, and sometimes the gender, but it's the still same person. I knew the war in Iraq was bullshit the day I read quotes from politicians on some liberal-wonk website.
All the quotes were blatantly pro-war. They all discussed the impending doom faced by our country. They all sounded ex-ACT-ly like the stewards of our governmental branches that grace our televisions today.
They were all from different eras, ranging from the Spanish-American War, up to the Vietnam war. Not one had to do with the current war, and yet they you couldn't tell the difference. The arguments haven't changed. The people haven't changed. Nothing has changed.
This article is exactly the same. Same words, different author, just as wrong. Science must advance by its very nature. Words written twenty years ago can't possibly be the same as they are today. It is this inherent advancement that separates science from all other disciplines.
We sometimes walk and we sometimes run, but we can never sit still.
Related:
Of Scientists And Popes.
What works, what doesn't: the futility of appeasing creationists (Via Pharyngula)
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