Volokh, PZ Myers on God’s Role in Creation
Eugene Volokh takes a stray line from a Michael Shermer piece on Intelligent Design and runs with it: Is evolution a threat to religious belief? And PZ Myers of Pharyngula responds: Volokh’s question.
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June 28th, 2005 at 10:38 pm
Pieces like this by law professors remind me of my father’s observation following my law school commencement, that people who become accomplished in one academic field sometimes mistakenly assume that they are thereby rendered competent in all academic fields. (The speaker, a law professor, delved into English Literature, my father’s academic field, in a manner that I suspected would leave my father somewhat amused.)
It also reminds me of my own observation in law school and in practice – that many “great legal minds” don’t take the time to think through their positions. (It’s worse, of course, when they are narcissistic, because that brand of “legal expert” can get outright nasty when you suggest that they would benefit from, say, adhering to the facts.) And that many “great legal minds” aren’t particularly accomplished thinkers, save perhaps within their field of specialization.
Which is not to say that Prof. Volokh stands as the best example of those two phenomena. But that particular post?
Beyond the critique you share, why is it that people who believe in reason and science are asked to take care not to offend those who reject science in the name of religion, while people who are religious (many of whom Prof. Volokh should know are able to reconcile their belief in god with such niceties as facts and science) are excused from such an expectation? Particualrly given that the people who are most apt to reject science on the basis that it is not consistent with their religious teachings also seem to be increasingly inclined to describe science or secularism as a religion.