PZ Myers Chides Chris Mooney for Urging Scientists to Humor the Public to Gain Respect

[BurtWorm]

The entire critique of Mooney's new book, cowritten with Sheril Kirshenbaum, is worth reading, especially as it answers some of the book's attacks on Myers and other atheist popularizers:

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/scienceblogs/pharyngula/~3/PNF4wqtpoeE/unscientific_america_how_scien.php

Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum were right about one thing.

They sent me a copy of their new book, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll), with a strange request: "We hope that like Dr. Coyne, you will suspend judgment until reading the book, at which point we'll be interested to hear what you think." I was a bit offended; of course I was going to read it with an open mind. Why would they think it necessary to ask me to do so?

That was before I got to chapters 8 and 9, however, which open with very direct and personal attacks on me and on Pharyngula, atheists in general, and anyone who fails to offer religion its proper modicum of respect. "Oh, that's why they warned me," I realized, "it's like asking the victim of a hatchet job to hold still for a moment so they can get in a good whack." They definitely did need to request my forbearance, so I wouldn't just toss their hypocritical and ignorant paean to mealy-mouthedness in the trash right away, which was one perceptive moment on their part. And yes, I freely admit that my opinion of the book is colored by the palpable contempt they hold for me.

But I get ahead of myself. As I said, the discombobulating assault didn't begin until chapter 8, but the problems I had with the book started much earlier.

In chapter one.

This chapter is completely baffling. They chose to illustrate the serious problem of the disconnect between a science-illiterate public and the science establishment with a strange example: the redesignation of Pluto as a non-planet. This event was accompanied by a public outcry, by people who had some peculiar emotional attachment to the idea that Pluto was the ninth planet, an attachment that was fed by a willing media that found this level of trivia to be about as complex an issue as they could handle. We know that certain topics rouse the public, and often it's unpredictable what will catch the fancy of the news. But this? This is the opening story on which they build their argument that "consequences of the science-society divide may prove far more damaging"? And what do they propose we should do to resolve the issue?

This is where I am first taken aback. They come down on the side of Pluto being redesignated as a planet! Why, is not clear — they clearly list the scientific reasons why astronomers thought it didn't merit the title of "planet" — but they talk over and over about "rifts" and "conflicts" and the "danger of being seen as an Adlai Stevenson egghead". Apparently, the sin of the scientists was a failure to bow before popular opinion, and insufficient attention to the PR consequences of a scientific decision.

Well, Chris and Sheril, what should the astronomers have done? Should they have had a binding referendum delivered to the public to get their say? Are there other scientific matters that should be decided by popular vote? (Let's put the truth of evolutionary biology up for decision in a poll!) Should scientists take the time to explain with a little wit and humor and sound scientific reasoning why they made that decision? If so, they missed the boat: they should read Neil deGrasse Tyson's The Pluto Files(amzn/b&n/abe/pwll) for exactly that. How about some discussion about exactly why they think that failed?

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