Dembski liioittelee...

..., kukaan ei ole yllättynyt.

UncommonDescentissä Dembski menee sanomaan, että 52-vuotta vanha tieteellinen julkaisu on poistettu, ja poistoa pyytänyt Homer Jacobson on aloittanut tieteellisen revisionismin aikakauden. Kopioin tänne olennaiset osat, jos ne vaikka sattuisivat katoamaan UD:stä:

"Below is a fascinating report in the NYTimes about a long-retired professor who found that his work was being cited by “creationists” and THEREFORE decided to retract it. But, as an attorney friend points out, the very concept of “retraction” is inapplicable here. A retraction is something the original author is entitled to do ONLY IF he has discovered, by re-examining his original data or reasoning or mathematics, that it was flawed.
That’s not what happened here. Instead, we have a situation in which — if we take the scientist (Homer Jacobson) at face value — later work by other people implies that the earlier work was wrong for some other reason. The proper action in such a case is not to “retract” a paper — which is an effort to erase it from the record — but to acknowledge it to have been in error, as revealed by later work. Such an acknowledgement is not a power unique to the author — anyone can declare an older theory superseded by a later one.

Even if it is wrong, it ought to remain on the public record. But by having its author not merely dsavow its superseded conclusions, but formally “retract” the paper, the effect is to wipe it out of history.

Welcome to the world of scientific revisionism."





Kovaa tekstiä, mutta onko siinä perää?

Hieman yllättäen eräs Mickey Bitsko on saanut tällaisen viestin UD-suodattimen läpi. Hän toteaa, että Jacobson ei pyytänyt poistamaan koko julkaisua, vaan ainoastaan kaksi lausetta (yli 100 sivusta). Ensimmäinen lause siksi, että kreationistit ovat lainailleet kohtaa perusteluna Jumalan ihmeteolle. Molemmissa lauseissa hän turvautui vääriksi osoittautuneisiin olettamuksiin.

Eli Jacobsonin julkaisua ei olla pyyhkimässä pois, toisin kuin Dembski antaisi uskoa.