« Smoking - The Book | Main | Brief notes »
At the risk of getting sued
By Wolfie | August 22, 2007
I’m a bit of a feed-reader and one of the ones I subscribe to is Slashdot. I don’t read all the articles, but will normally check out anything that has a good headline. So “Science blogger sued for unfavourable review” was always going to get read.
Now, I don’t profess to being anything of a scientist and I’m certainly no biologist but I know that spiders have eight legs, not ten. Yet the book being reviewed apparently includes reference to ten-legged spiders. A lot of the review itself passes me by (what’s a torus? I don’t know) but the content seems plain enough - the guy that wrote the book doesn’t know what he’s talking about and has no data to back up his claims.
Well it seems that the books author (a chap called Stuart Pivar) has taken exception to the review by PZ Myers and has filed a $15 million suit claiming damages for the emotional distress that the review has caused him.
Now, this seems to me to raise two issues. The first is that if you invite someone to review your book (as Pivar apparently did) can you really expect them to cover you in glory if you’ve written something that they consider to be nonsense? If you don’t want to be called a “classic crackpot”, perhaps you should present your ideas coherently and with evidence to back them up? If people are going to get lawyered up every time they get a bad review, then nothing is ever going to get written again.
The second issue references the whole Creationsim vs. Evolution debate. It seems to me (coming late to the party as I am) that Myers (an evolutionist) has given Pivar (a creationist) a bad review based on lack of science, which Pivar has taken exception to because you don’t need science to back up a creationist point of view.
I’m always a little lost when it comes to this argument; at heart I have no real objection to the idea that there is a God. I know that many people draw comfort from the thought that there is some Being up there watching over us, guiding our lives. However, I don’t myself believe this to be true.
I’m a pragmatist; I want to see some evidence that God exists and that creationists are right. (”Ah, but proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing.”). The evolutionists have plenty of science to back up their opinions, after all.
I also take issue with the position that creationists seem to take - our way is the only way; all you evolutionists are the spawn of Satan and your ideas are meaningless. Surely, if they are right then the evolutionist position is all part of God’s plan for us; to help us develop thoughts of our own? There seems to be no compromise in a creationist position, hence the lawsuit.
Of course, this is nothing new; many of the bloodiest wars in our history have been fought over a difference of religious opinion. Perhaps we should be thankful that this time it’s only a lawsuit.
[Further reading: The Panda's Thumb, Pharyngula]
Categories: Religion |
Tags: Creation, Evolution, Lawsuit, Myers, Pivar
Subscribe by: Email or RSS :: Copyright 2008. All rights reserved. No reproduction without prior permission. :: Disclaimer: All opinions in this blog are either my own or completely made up; you decide.
:: pulasthi had this to say:
hello there,
this article really is great. I find it really interesting.
thanks
2:39 am :: August 23rd, 2007