On April 6, I wrote: "Some folks don’t know how to cut their losses. Lawrence VanDyke’s complete scientific and scholarly incompetence has been so thoroughly reviewed by me (here and here), biologists, political commentators, and those concerned with science education, that you’d think he might just admit what is now obvious: that he was out of his depth, scientifically and philosophically, and leave it at that. We’re all entitled to make mistakes, after all."
But along comes the April 22 Harvard Law School newspaper quoting VanDyke still not cutting his losses: "'Contrary to most of Leiter and his cronies' [sic] attacks on my piece, the actual argument of my note has really nothing to do with the empirical support for ID,' asserted VanDyke. 'My note addresses a prior question - should ID be damned before ever even getting a fair hearing on the empirical merits? I say no - to do so with consistency would require similarly damning naturalistic evolution.'"
So he's still running the same argument--the one where he compounds his scientific ignorance, with philosophical ignorance--that I discussed on April 6.
Wow!
UPDATE: Reader Jason Walta writes:
"Ah, the sweet bliss of cognitive dissonance.
"Compare this:
'According to 2L VanDyke's note, the Intelligent Design (ID) movement "insists that "intelligent agency" provides an origins paradigm that is better supported by the empirical evidence and gives greater coherence to our scientific observations and philosophical intuitions than does the philosophy of methodological naturalism (MN) underlying evolutionary orthodoxy." (4/22/04 HLS Record article, page 1.)
"with this:
'Contrary to most of Leiter and his cronies' attacks on my piece, the actual argument of my note has really nothing to do with the empirical support for ID,' asserted VanDyke. (Id., page 2)."
And more apt comments on the article from Chris Mooney here, which makes some important points of general applicability about the pretense of journalistic objectivity.
And finally, more from Pharyngula, who offers the wise maxim: "First Rule of Holes: If you're in one, stop digging."
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