Ed Brayton is a freelance writer and speaker. He is the co-founder and president of Michigan Citizens for Science and co-founder of The Panda's Thumb. He has written for such publications as The Bard, Skeptic and Reports of the National Center for Science Education, spoken in front of many organizations and conferences, and appeared on nationally syndicated radio shows and on C-SPAN. Ed is also a Fellow with the Center for Independent Media.(static)
Ed Brayton also blogs at Positive Liberty and The Panda's Thumb
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Posted on: October 13, 2007 9:08 AM, by Ed Brayton
Paul Gross, Panda's Thumb colleague and scourge of creationists and postmodernists alike, has a review of Michael Behe's new book The Edge of Evolution, published in the New Criterion. They have been kind enough to allow him to post that review to the webpage for his book with Barbara Forrest, Creationism's Trojan Horse (PDF link here).
View the Technorati Link Cosmos for this entry
Comments
I hope Gross' critique of creationism is better than the hack scholarship he tried to pass off in his attempted dismissal of postmodernism.
Posted by: Winnebago | October 13, 2007 12:43 PM
Whats wrong with postmodernism? There are some truly great postmodern literary works. What are his criticisms against it?
Posted by: Robert | October 13, 2007 1:38 PM
OK, so a quick google search has informed me that he is attacking postmodernism in higher education specifically in regards to science. I have to admit, that I have no idea what that means, but its probably not a criticism on books like Catch 22, and House of Leaves.
Posted by: Robert | October 13, 2007 1:42 PM
Anyone criticizing postmodernism needs to use the Postmodern Essay Generator a few times.
Posted by: FishyFred | October 13, 2007 3:46 PM
Postmodernism is fine and dandy as a literary movement and an artistic device, but it's rapidly becoming as much of a dogma as the stuff it was originally designed to attack. I remember that at university (where I studied English) I was marked down for not addressing postmodernism in an essay that was never meant to have anything to do with postmodernism. The problem starts because it's a discipline that can theoretically cover everything, and a lot of its adherents do actually believe it should be applied so broadly.
Look at, say, Foucault's work on the social construction of madness - Roy Porter points out again and again in his book Madness that it's basically all wrong, and based on the fashionable assumption that all study of insanity was born out of fascist desire to suppress dissidents in society, but nobody really cares because Porter approaches history as a series of facts to be reported and Foucault views history as a text to be interpreted. Anyone who cares about science should be vehemently against this kind of postmodernist creep into other disciplines because it removes any obligation for academics to tell the truth.
For a great take-down of postmodernism and the excesses it engenders, I recommend the relevant chapters of Francis Wheen's How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions. For an even more concise take-down, I'll quote a friend of mine: "The idea behind postmodernism is that every idea is equally valid, unless your ideas oppose postmodernism, at which point you're told you're a moron."
Posted by: Der Bruno Stroszek | October 16, 2007 6:09 AM
I think Paul Gross is a very good and inteligent actor.He has a very good sense of humor.When I watch his shows and movie they make me happy and sad and I even root for him.He should continue acting and do what he does best and act. He is the best actor I know. I like his show due south and 20,000 leagues under the sea. I can stop watching the shows of his I am hooked.I watch him so much that I can't stop I continue watch.Keep on acting and doing what your doing and up make us pround, because you are doing a beautiful job and I love it. He is a wonderful actor and does a wounderful job. Keep it up.
Posted by: Starr Groth | May 11, 2008 11:22 PM
I think Paul Gross is a very good and inteligent actor.He has a very good sense of humor.When I watch his shows and movie they make me happy and sad and I even root for him.He should continue acting and do what he does best and act. He is the best actor I know. I like his show due south and 20,000 leagues under the sea. I can stop watching the shows of his I am hooked.I watch him so much that I can't stop I continue watch.Keep on acting and doing what your doing and up make us pround, because you are doing a beautiful job and I love it. He is a wonderful actor and does a wounderful job. Keep it up.
Posted by: Starr Groth | May 11, 2008 11:24 PM