John West vs The Evil Scientists

I attended the sideshow performed by John West of the Discovery Institute at Nicholson hall on the campus of the University of Minnesota last Friday evening.

West is promoting his new book while attempting to discredit the scientific establishment by blaming it for the horrors of the Eugenics movement earlier in the last century and essentially arguing that pseudo-scientists should enjoy equal standing and clerics should provide oversight. At no time did he use god talk, but the speech was sponsored by a campus Evangelical Christian group. There were even 2 police officers outside the door because "someone said there might be protesters!" Mr. West was bombastic and his tone was accusatory, laced with blame and he at times interrupted those who might have the opportunity to express their dissent.

The event, however, seemed to be more of a ruse to attract potentially new student converts to Evangelicism. The moderator several times announced that he would buy lunch for any U of M student so that they can "have a talk" - ostensibly to proselytize to some hungry but unwitting undergrad. Of course, I've seen this tactic before - all the god talk starts AFTER he buys you a sub sandwich and you then feel obligated to stay for ensuing assault on your self confidence so that he can persuade you to succumb to his will. I would imagine that the meal begins AND ends with a prayer followed with a long bear hug re pleat with whimpering and the shedding of tears.

At any rate, what transpired at Nicholson was NOT a scientific debate but a sham. What use it is to engage in discourse with these charlatans as though they were just confused folk with too many graduate degrees trying to advance mankind and science - what they are trying to advance is Theocracy and oppression but in a very nice sounding way. Professors love to debate their area of expertise, so its easy to get them going, but these are not the people to argue any field of science with. When challenged, West kept changing the focus - misdirecting the conversation so that no conclusion or fallacy is effectively analyzed. If he accomplished anything, West was very successful at wasting the time of scientists who had better things to do - like watching reruns of fantasy island. Indeed, this was his real purpose - to engage legitimate academics in debate, waste their time and cloud the issue so that doubt can set in in the publics mind.

This is a part of The Wedge Strategy that was devised and implemented by the Discovery Institute in 1999; to use books, publicity and confrontation in order to replace scientific inquiry with Theism. The Intelligent Design myth is the main focus for achieving this goal.

The scientific community needs to do is stop ingratiating these pretenders and call them out - like a lawyer might. God talk isn't very effective in convincing people nowadays and it is difficult to gain credibility with the public that way unless perhaps you are speaking to a low income audience from the south. So, apologists have to resort to pretending to borrowing the language and style of real science.

You can read the Below is a four part video of the speech at Nicholson hall and is an example of how the Discovery Institute is attempting to spread disinformation and propaganda in this country.