Science Under Siege

Good one from Uncle Johann. Bit like Wheen's mumbo jumbo but shorter.

Science Under Siege

How relativism is threatening progress - and the poorest suffer
by Johann Hari

"...the failure of defenders of the Enlightenment to stand up against this erosion of science is leading to deaths in some of the poorest countries in the world. Since the 1970s and the rise of postmodernism, it has become popular to view science as a Western, imperialist system, no better or worse than other "indigenous forms of knowledge". Some leaders in developing countries have taken this seriously - and the victims have been their own people. The South African President Thabo Mbeki has enthusiastically picked up this rhetoric, attacking the "hegemony" of Western science and claiming it is "colonialist" to argue HIV causes Aids. He has latched on to a scientist called Peter Duesberg, who says that Aids is caused by poverty and cannot be transmitted by heterosexual sex. The result? Over 70,000 children are now born every year with HIV in South Africa - a great victory over imperialism."

"This injection of multiculturalism and relativism into science has not done any harm to privileged Westerners, who revert to real medicine the moment they get seriously ill. But it has been a disaster for poor countries.

[Richard] Dawkins has debunked this relativism best, saying simply, "Science works. An African tribe might believe that the moon is an old cooking pot throw up into the sky, but that doesn't get you to the moon. Science does. Show me a relativist at 30,000 feet and I'll show you a hypocrite.""

I thought the article warranted its own thread but it arguably also has relevance to JP's polio conspiracy (which is very interesting by the way.)