Post details: Shame on us all for lacking credulity

09/17/10

Permalinkby 10:22:35 pm, Categories: Commentary - OpEd, 286 words   English (CA)

Shame on us all for lacking credulity

by Denyse O'Leary
ARN correspondent

From ScienceDaily, we learn,

Why 'Scientific Consensus' Fails to Persuade

(Sep. 14, 2010) If you are like most people, the answer is likely to be, "it
depends." What it depends on, a recent study found, is not whether the position that scientist takes is consistent with the one endorsed by a National Academy. Instead, it is likely to depend on whether the position the scientist takes is consistent with the one believed by most people who share your cultural values.

This was the finding of a recent study conducted by Yale University law professor Dan Kahan, University of Oklahoma political science professor Hank Jenkins-Smith and George Washington University law professor Donald Braman that sought to understand why members of the public are sharply and persistently divided on matters on which expert scientists largely agree.

An interesting article, but a little too self-pleasing for my taste. The reason people doubt expert science (or other) consensus is that they often know reasons why the consensus might not be correct, not just because they are biased but the experts are not. Sometimes a consensus is just a herd of independent minds, bellowing noisily as they gallop off a cliff. I am sixty years old, and it is interesting to reflect on all the expert opinion extant in my youth, and what happened to it.

Toronto-based Canadian journalist Denyse O'Leary (www.designorchance.com) is the author of the multiple award-winning By Design or by Chance? (Augsburg Fortress 2004), an overview of the intelligent design controversy. She was named CBA Canada's Recommended Author of the Year in 2005 and is co-author, with Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard, of The Spiritual Brain: A neuroscientist's case for the existence of the soul (Harper 2007).

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