FREEDOM OF THE AIR
Sir,-To return "Biologist’s" compliment, "It is regrettable that so many people are ready to rush into print when their cherished scientific theories are criticised without (1) knowing what science is, (2) knowing what they are talking about." Regrettable, because such people, e.g. "Biologist," C.H.P. and R. Langridge, are confused and consequently tiresome to argue with. "Biologist’s" variation on the theme "religion the enemy of science" is amusing; it will be time enough to take it seriously when he tells us exactly what he means by "science," "dogma," "superstition" and "mysticism." This last term he seems to regard as a handy label to apply to Philosophical opinions, religious beliefs and the iniquities of the Inquisition. I suggest that he reads E, Underhill’s Mysticism; when speaking of mysticism after that, he would know what he was talking about. The quoting of authorities is not, as he thinks, a "ruse" to take in innocent biologists, but simply a recording of the opinioris of eminent scientists, who, after testing the theory of evolution, have rejected it on scientific grounds. "Biologist" makes a big song about the recent enormous developments in cyto-genetics. Caullery, an eminent geneticist, says: "The facts provided by genetics seem not to go beyond the limits of the species, or at most the genus. They contain no hint at all of the processes by which the differentiation of the greater groups-family, order, class-took place." Julian Huxley, after a lengthy account of the bearing of genetics on the origin of species, writes:
"The origin of species is largely irrelevant to the large-scale movements of evolution." C.H.P. seems to think that the National Museum of Natural History in Paris is a sectarian institution. I hasten to assure him that such is not the case. The same applies to the University of Montpellier, where Vialleton was professor of anatomy, and the State University of Leningrad, where Berg was head of the department of applied ichthyology. May I add that I do not agree with the views of Professor Fleming and I am not a Fundamentalist; so there, is no need for me to deal with those red herrings which C.H.P. has introduced into the argument. |
G.H.
D.
(Greenmeadows).
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 335, 23 November 1945, Page 25
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367FREEDOM OF THE AIR New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 335, 23 November 1945, Page 25
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