Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Has Jerry Coyne Gone Nuts?

In my posts earlier this year I addressed Jerry Coyne's attack against the most basic foundations of democracy and liberalism,  not that one is supposed to notice those are casualties of following his 18th century materialism to its necessary conclusions.

Since there are so many more important things than you can get to in one lifetime,  I don't follow Coyne's blog very closely.   I'd long ago figured he was often marginally rational when not firmly fixed on his narrow topic of professional discipline or under the eye of an editor, I didn't look to him as a source of science news or rational thinking.

I'd missed Coyne's attacks on James A. Shapiro earlier this year until I happened on it when recently dipping into the crazy soup that his blog is.   You can judge for yourself it's accuracy but you should read what Shapiro actually said and his response to Coyne's out of control attacks.   As with so much of what Coyne writes when he's free to say just what he thinks,  Shapiro gives him about as much of a benefit of the doubt as is possible when he says:

Jerry, I think you need to do better next time. Please address my real arguments, not your own mischaracterizations.

But the problem with blogging, as can be seen in Coyne's comment threads, is that a blogger like Coyne doesn't appeal to a wider group that will provide an honest review and come up with something less biased, he appeals to his fellow ideologues, many of whom haven't got the slightest idea what the issues are.  His blog, as so many "science blogs" use the social status of science to present ideological propaganda and attacks as a more reliable truth.    Some others are as ideological but I'm not aware of any other widely read science blogger who more consistently misrepresents his adversaries in a way that makes me wonder at the emotional stability of the blogger.

I think it's time to ask if Jerry Coyne isn't just plain nuts.  As his blog goes on,  he reminds me ever more of Glenn Beck.

UPDATE:   I withdraw the question,  having looked around his blog the last couple of days, he's totally nuts. His fans don't care that he's raving.   I'm aware that the standards of atheist thinking are as unconcerned with accuracy, rational coherence and fidelity to real life as that of your typical tea party oriented site.   It is morbidly fascinating to me how many figures in science, popularly regarded as the high church of reason and sanity,  are so obviously cracked.

1 comment:

  1. Neo-darwinism, neo-liberalism and neo-eugenics: simply forms of vicious attack on life!

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