Who is against Evolution?: David Friedman has a must read post on this
David's post can be read here. Here is how it starts:
It's a widespread view, but true in only a narrow sense. People who say they are against teaching the theory of evolution are very likely to be Christian fundamentalists. But people who are against taking seriously the implications of evolution, strongly enough to want to attack those who disagree, including those who teach those implications, are quite likely to be on the left. . . .
posted by John Lott at 12:23 AM
1 Comments:
Good post but couple of very dubious examples chosen.
Differences in racial cognitive attributes, while obviously possible, have a long history of very poor science. e.g. early IQ testing favouring anglo-Saxon cultural background, and showing those with Black, Irish or non english speaking backgrounds to be "Sub Human"
Close friend who is cognitive psychology researcher maintains that all that the various tests test, is the ability to do the test.
Some of those differences are undoubtedly cultural eg difference in educational outcome for moslem vs Hindu students of Indian/ Pakistani/ Bengali background, although even within that there is the possible social impact on genetics, with the Moslem tradition of marrying cousins.
As for Chomsky, my friend's own research findings on the cognitive basis for language were strongly at odds with Chomsky's, and at conferences, Chomsky is much more likely to dismiss finding different to his by attacking the age or character or institution of the researcher, rather than their science.
Ding
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