Table Of ContentS U A
cience nder ttAck
S U A
cience nder ttAck
t A U
he ge of nreASon
r B. A
Alph lexAnder
Algora Publishing
New York
© 2018 by Algora Publishing.
All Rights Reserved
www.algora.com
No portion of this book (beyond what is permitted by
Sections 107 or 108 of the United States Copyright Act of 1976)
may be reproduced by any process, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form, or by any means, without the
express written permission of the publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data —
Names: Alexander, Ralph B., author.
Title: Science under attack: the age of unreason / Ralph B. Alexander.
Description: New York: Algora Publishing, [2018] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018035199| ISBN 9781628943634 (soft cover: alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781628943641 (hard cover: alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Science—Social aspects. | Science—Psychological aspects.
Classification: LCC Q175.5 .A435 2018 | DDC 306.4/5—dc23 LC record available at
https://lccn.loc.gov/2018035199
Printed in the United States
To my parents, Elsie and Solly,
who encouraged me to
challenge conventional wisdom
through scholarship
Science Under Attack
Table of Contents
prefAce 1
chApter 1. BAckgroUnd 5
Where Science Came From 6
The Scientific Revolution 11
Galileo Defies Authority 14
The Age of Reason 18
The Scientific Method 21
Modern Science And Funding 26
chApter 2. continentAl drift: A threAt to the eStABliShment 29
The Continental Drift Story 29
Forty Years On: New Evidence 36
Sixty Years On: Acceptance 41
Abuses Of Science 43
chApter 3. evolUtion And creAtioniSm: Science vS religion 49
The Evolution Story 49
Modern Evidence for Evolution 56
The Creationism Story 59
Young-Earth Creationism 63
Intelligent Design 66
Why Creation Science And Intelligent Design Aren’t Science 69
chApter 4. dietAry fAt: nUtritionAl politicS 79
The Dietary Fat Story 79
The Government Intervenes 88
ix
Science Under Attack
A New Look at Old Data 97
Bias And Politics Invade Science 101
chApter 5. climAte chAnge: environmentAl politicS 107
The Global Warming Story 107
Evidence That Doesn’t Match Predictions 117
The Multiple Lines of Evidence Fallacy 125
Surface Temperature 126
Atmospheric Temperature 128
Ocean Heat 130
Sea Levels 131
Sea and Land Ice 132
Extreme Weather 134
Politics Takes Over Science 135
chApter 6. vAccinAtion: exploitAtion of feAr 143
The Vaccination Story 143
Vaccine Safety on Trial 148
The Anti-Vaccination Movement Revives 155
Fear Negates Science 164
chApter 7. gmo foodS: feAr of A frAnkenStein 171
The GMO Foods Story 172
False Alarms About GMOs 177
The Anti-GMO Campaign 185
Rejection of Science 191
chApter 8. the ASSAUlt on Science 199
Mistreatment of Evidence 199
Corrosion And Corruption Of Science 201
The Insidious Influence Of Politics 206
Why Is Science Being Assailed? 210
Whither Science? 216
gloSSAry 223
BiBliogrAphy 227
index 233
x
prefAce
Over 200 years have passed since the Age of Reason, or the Age of
Enlightenment as it’s sometimes called — an era that also marked the peak
of the Scientific Revolution which began several centuries earlier. But today,
science is characterized more by unreason and unenlightenment than by
the rational discourse of the Age of Reason. Although we pay lip service
to science, the emphasis on empirical evidence and logic that distinguish
true science from pseudoscience or other imitations is absent from much of
the debate over topics such as climate change, vaccination and genetically
modified organisms (GMOs).
Apart from the misinterpretation, misrepresentation and even dismissal
of evidence, science is currently suffering from a crisis in reproducibility.
The situation is so bad that up to 90% of published findings in some
areas of biomedical science can’t be replicated. Even in psychology, the
rate of irreproducibility hovers around 60%. And to make matters worse,
falsification and outright fabrication of scientific data is on the rise.
What has brought science to this sorry state? This book examines the
forces behind the assault on modern science. To paint a picture of the current
state of the discipline, I’ve chosen six separate examples to illustrate the
varied though related forms of attack: continental drift, evolution, dietary
fat, climate change, vaccination and GMOs. Each example is a vignette
encapsulating the history of the particular topic, together with an analysis
of the threats to science, and abuses of science, embodied in the illustration.
Readers may be surprised by my assertion that science is on the side of
those who accept the theories of evolution and continental drift, as well as
the safety of vaccination and GMO foods but is not on the side of those who
1
