“ Scientists must not fall into the same trap. The fight is not between the believers and deniers of evolution. It is between those who would impose their views on others, and those who affirm each person’s right to reach their own conclusions. If scientists are seen as merely imposing our own views, we are the hypocrites.
The matter gets worse when it comes to educating our children, who are mere hostages in the culture wars. It sounds perfectly fine to say that children should be exposed to many types of information: scientific, traditional, ambiguous, precise, and allowed to make up their own minds. Indeed, this sounds very progressive. But the fact is, children lack the critical faculty to identify credible sources. No society in the world simply exposes children to a cauldron of information, it is the job of adults to select a subset of credible information. In every society at any time in history, there is always a debate about what this credible subset is. But at some point, we choose and move forward.
Darwin’s book is not about the fact of evolution. It is not even about data in support of the fact of evolution. Rather it is one of the most beautiful demonstrations we have about how science must be communicated, about how an argument must be constructed. It is startling in its humility, in its basic premise that the reader must be convinced or the writer has failed. This is why it is a great book, not for any other reason. "
Mukund thaatai
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