ot nothing to do with science.
Update: Tom Hamilton looks at this in more detail on his let’s be sensible blog.
Unintelligent Letters
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Prof McIntosh appears to be another in a long line of creationist preachers whose academic credentials in a separate discipline give him spurious credibility when commenting on evolutionary biology. See this page:
http://www.bible-sermons.org.uk/preachers/36-Andy-McIntosh
Using the title “Professor” is a great way of getting letters printed and creating the illusion of a genuine debate between scientists. -
“Dawkins’s defence is based not on scientific facts, but on ideology.”
This is partly true. He don’t half despise us Christians.
Tom
“Using the title “Professor” is a great way of getting letters printed and creating the illusion of a genuine debate between scientists.”
Yes, just like Professor Dawkins does. He is also, of course, an expert on Iraq, Israel etc…. -
Here’s a book by another misguided academic:-
http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/book.asp?ref=1405125381 -
On Dawkins doing the same thing. Yes, absolutely, and it annoys me too. He’s fairly well qualified to discuss biology, though, to be fair to him.
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The only way I can understand Tom’s linking to the ‘Bible Sermons’ site is to convey implicitly: “Look, the guy’s a committed Christian. So he must be a loony.” This is exactly the same kind of bigotry Dawkins has made a media career out of.
Furthermore, surely any professor is entitled to “use” the title “Professor.” The credibility it gives him is not “spurious.” Thermodynamics and combustion theory are genuine areas of intellectual inquiry. We’re not talking about media studies (or, indeed, “the public understanding of science”). -
I’m absolutely not in the business of claiming that committed Christians are loonies. I’ve got a bit of a problem with literal six-day creationists like Andy McIntyre.
In this case, he’s offering a pretty rubbish argument, and suspect that the fact that he has an academic title is a significant reason why the Times printed it. Since his academic expertise doesn’t bear on evolutionary biology, it isn’t relevant to his argument.
See:
http://letsbesensible.blogspot.com/2005/05/arguing-badly-for-creationism.html
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