Re: leonard susskind

Kermit (unrestrained_hand@xxxxxxxxxxx) wrote:

: Doug Quarnstrom wrote:
: > Hey,
: >
: > I am reading Intelligent Thought: Science Vs the Intelligent
: > Design Movement.
: >
: > I have not finished it, but I was deeply annoyed by Leonard
: > Susskind's essay.
: >
: > Early in his essay he tries to make a point about why listening
: > to scientists is important. He makes the rather bald-faced
: > assertion that if only we had listened more closely to Hans
: > Blix and M. El Baradei that we could have avoided the Iraq
: > "disaster".

: Whether you think we should have gone to war or not, surely it's better
: to base our decisions on the most reliable information available?

Whatever my position on the subject is, a highly controversial
political point is out of place in the sort of book Susskind was
contributint to.

: >
: > Sigh. Creationists already think that evolution is politics
: > disguised as science, so Susskind does nobody any favors
: > by making such a blatant and controversial statement in
: > an essay on the topic of evolution.

: It really may not have occured to Susskind that some people would
: consider this controversial.

Then he should get out more.

: He probably just thought of it as another
: case in which someone didn't listen to the data because they didn't
: want to hear it.

Perhaps. It remains a political argument. I listened quite carefully
to what Blix said to the UN. As I recall he said he suspected
Saddam might have these weapons, and that, at the very least he wasn't
being fully cooperative. But my memory may be hazy.

: > Mr. Susskinds assertion is a political opinion and nothing more.

: So, you're saying that we *should ignore data that we don't want to
: hear?

No.

I do not have cites at my fingertips about the errors made by
Baradei and Blix. I may search for them...but if you wikipedia
Hans Blix, you will see that he and the IAEA never discovered
the clandestine program undertaken by the Iraqis.

: >
: > I can't say much about the rest of the book. ...or even
: > why I am reading it for that matter. Reading about the
: > debunking of ID is rather like reading about shooting fat
: > and slothful fish in a tiny, tiny barrel...in a barrel that
: > has no water in it. Still, I suppose it has its moments.

: Yeah, I see your point. More useful might be insightts into why many
: people are so disconnected from science or reality in general, and what
: we can do about it.

Well, that is in part what Susskind's essay is about. I am an atheist
and someone who knows evolution to be a fact. I also believe there
was no way for inspections to prove the absense of weapons programs
in Iraq, particlularly given that the only reason they were in the
country at all was that we had a quarter of a million troops on
the border. It is my political opinion that we had very little choice
but to do what was done (it is also, to repeat myself, not my intent
to debate that here) , and no scientist could really change
what was a geopolitical decision that had many many inputs. Susskind
oversimplifies and, as I said, he conflates the politics of the
gulf war with the politics of evolution in a way that plays right into
the hands of creationists.


doug

.

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