Science vs scientific dogma

[Michael Gochfeld]

I've tried really hard to stay out of this thread.

I "hear" three issues: 

1) control of education
2) testability of various theories of how we (and others) got here
3) scientific dogmas

I agree that there are many highly dogmatic scientists who require that 
students learn their dogmas.  During my years at the American Museum of 
Natural History I was privileged to attend the frequent seminars at 
which two groups of dogmatists exchanging barbs across the "education 
hall". The cladists had the advantage of younger age and louder voices 
as well as a clearly unifying Hennigian theme.  I remember my 
disappointment at taking Donn Rosen's Fish Biology and finding that it 
was a thinly disguised polemic on cladism.  Joel Crafcraft (now chair of 
ornithology at AMNH) described his "conversion" under Gareth Nelson in 
terms clearly indicative of a religious experience--------his epiphany 
occurred more than 25 years ago but I remember his recounting of it 
quite vividly. 

But in the process of having two opposing camps of titans hurling 
lightning bolts, we graduate students learned to question a lot of 
things.  It was very stimulating. 

This was a time (mid 70's) when California was considering requiring 
that creationism get equal billing in textbooks---and since California 
was the largest textbook market that meant essentially all textbooks.  I 
asked Stan Salthe, who had recently published a textbook, for his 
"take". He thought it was a great idea to juxtapose opposing viewpoints 
a let students see for themselves why evolution could be a satisfying 
explanation of historical phenomena.  He thought that evolution was 
strengthened by being compared with the explanatory power of 
creationism. 

Yet I remember vividly in 9th grade, a girl (MP) saying "you don't 
really believe that do you" when our teacher explained the lineage 
leading from primates to humans.  I've often wonder since whether having 
her belief challenged was good, bad or indifferent for her. 

M. Gochfeld