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Wow. Kudos to you for actually getting the low down from the horse's mouth. It's unbelievable though, that he actually believes the tripe that he wrote. It's been somewhat depressing for me to watch science be dismantled slowly by the religious right over the last decade or so; increasingly so by the Bush administration. It's getting to the point where every few months I start looking at what it would take to emigrate to Canada, China, or some European country. A lot of people I know believe that the U.S. will always be the world's leader in science, but they're not paying attention. The primary education system has been terrible in the states for years, and now we've started the downward slide in higher education, especially in computer science, and now in the biological sciences. Unless people wake up and start to realize that the 'intelligent design'/creationist camp is a bunch of hokum, the U.S. is going to rapidly make itself irrelevant.
Dude! I think he was joking, actually. You thought that response sounded serious? Heh. If I'm right, he's got a good game going on...
I'm listening to vinyl frontier from the study room! awesome as usual.
I don't know, Laura - if you look at the about page for the website, it really seems that the whole site is trying to be pretty serious.
Here's a relevant passage:
The Social Affairs Unit identifies research with a potential to inform public policy and translates it from academic discourse into public debate. The ideas it promotes come largely from historians, sociologists and philosophers but also medical doctors and hard scientists.
Its books and reports are widely and prominently covered in the media. Value of media coverage for one year is assessed at £1,416,126. (Brad/MDLM)
The SAU was founded in 1980, with Professor Julius Gould as Chairman, Dr Digby Anderson as Director. Though always an independent institute, it was started with active encouragement from the Institute of Economic Affairs. The SAU is funded by sale of publications and donations from foundations and a highly diverse array of companies. Donations have come from over a hundred sources. Authors published number well over 200.
If that's not a site trying to be relevant to the public discourse, then I don't know what is.
Sorry it took me so long to see you responded here. Anyway.
I think satire is a very serious form of social discourse. As you can see from the comments-- it rises serious emotions in people because they are not sure whether or not the writing is to be taken seriously. I think the real point of the whole thing then becomes the way we respond to his original writings. If we put so much energy into the response, it means we are in a sense acknowledging that the original article is worth our time.
But it's not...
also, I just read somewhere that his next article on that social affairs unit website was about ghosts.
hehe
I agree that satire is a serious form of social discourse; however I remain unconvinced that what he wrote is satire, especially if you read the other articles touching on evolution that follow.
Satire as a tool for discourse is best used to point out the absurdity in the arguments of the opposing side but Rubinstein's article does no such thing; rather it repeats the fallacious arguments that creationists and "intelligent design" proponents have used to try to debunk evolution. You say "I think the real point of the whole thing then becomes the way we respond to his original writings. If we put so much energy into the response, it means we are in a sense acknowledging that the original article is worth our time." I say that staying silent is no longer an option for scientists. We used to believe that the logical, sound argument would always win out, but that is clearly no longer the case - the average person is either incapable or unwilling to distinguish between valid and invalid arguments, or accurately assess who is and isn't a creditable expert. The only way that science can win now is to crush the opposition whenever it rears its stupid head.
Hi Dennis, laura b here! So I read that article you posted and I read bill rubinstein's article and I was like, there is NO WAY this is not satire. Here is my email to him and his response :)
Professor Rubinstein,
I'm just writing to confirm that this article you wrote was a satire: http://www.socialaffairsunit.org.uk/blog/archives/000427.php
Some people are trying to tell me it was not, and that deeply disturbs me as an academic. I study science and my mother is a Holocaust historian.
I apologize if you are not the author.
Thank you.
Laura
I am the author and I find your remarks highly offensive.
Bill Rubinstein