From the article:
---------------------------
Donald Kennedy
Editor-in-Chief

For much of their existence over the past two centuries, Europe and the
United
States have been societies of questioners: nations in which skepticism has
been
accepted and even welcomed, and where the culture has been characterized
by
confidence in science and in rational methods of thought. We owe this
tradition
in part to the birth of the Scottish Enlightenment of the early 18th
century,
when the practice of executing religious heretics ended, to be gradually
replaced by a developing conviction that substituted faith in experiment
for
reliance on inherited dogma.

From the article:
---------------------------
Donald Kennedy
Editor-in-Chief

For much of their existence over the past two centuries, Europe and

States have been societies of questioners: nations in which

accepted and even welcomed, and where the culture has been

confidence in science and in rational methods of thought. We owe this

in part to the birth of the Scottish Enlightenment of the early 18th

when the practice of executing religious heretics ended, to be

replaced by a developing conviction that substituted faith in

reliance on inherited dogma.

That new tradition, prominently represented by the Scottish

Hume, supplied important roots for the growth of modernity, and it

U.S. society well, as it has Europe's. The results of serious,

experimentation and analysis became a standard for the entry of a

theory into the common culture of citizens and the policies of their
governments. Thus, scientific determinations of the age of Earth and

theories of gravity, biological evolution, and the conservation of

energy became meaningful scientific anchors of our common

In the United States, that understanding is now undergoing some

some school boards eliminate the teaching of evolution or require

religious versions of creation be represented as "scientific"

"Intelligent design," a recent replacement for straight-up

essentially asserts that a sufficient quantity of complexity and

itself evidence of divine origin--a retrogression to the

zoologist William Paley, who saw in the elegant construction of a

antenna the work of a Creator.
--------------------------------

Read it at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/308/5719/165
(get a login ID at
http://www.bugmenot.com/view.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencemag.org

J. Spaceman

--
My email address (notreally@jspaceman.homelinux.org) is fake. Email

will only get caught in my spam tarpit.

From the article:
---------------------------
Donald Kennedy
Editor-in-Chief

For much of their existence over the past two centuries, Europe and the United
States have been societies of questioners: nations in which skepticism has been
accepted and even welcomed, and where the culture has been characterized by
confidence in science and in rational methods of thought. We owe this tradition
in part to the birth of the Scottish Enlightenment of the early 18th century,
when the practice of executing religious heretics ended, to be gradually
replaced by a developing conviction that substituted faith in experiment for
reliance on inherited dogma.

That new tradition, prominently represented by the Scottish philosopher David
Hume, supplied important roots for the growth of modernity, and it has served
U.S. society well, as it has Europe's. The results of serious, careful
experimentation and analysis became a standard for the entry of a discovery or
theory into the common culture of citizens and the policies of their
governments. Thus, scientific determinations of the age of Earth and the
theories of gravity, biological evolution, and the conservation of matter and
energy became meaningful scientific anchors of our common understanding.

In the United States, that understanding is now undergoing some dissolution, as
some school boards eliminate the teaching of evolution or require that
religious versions of creation be represented as "scientific" alternatives.
"Intelligent design," a recent replacement for straight-up creationism,
essentially asserts that a sufficient quantity of complexity and beauty is by
itself evidence of divine origin--a retrogression to the pre-Darwinian
zoologist William Paley, who saw in the elegant construction of a beetle's
antenna the work of a Creator.
--------------------------------

Read it at http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/308/5719/165
(get a login ID at
http://www.bugmenot.com/view.php?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.sciencemag.org )