Re: paleonet FW: A new hypothesis... - See AAPG!

[Tom Dunkley Jones <tom.dunkleyjones@xxxxxxxxx>]

Anyone heard of "standpoint epistemology"? The thought that one's 
social and economic situation fundamentally conditions what it is 
possible to know? I can't help feeling that Creationism is part of a 
internally highly coherent (watertight, airtight, probably radiation 
proof) social structure (stating the bleeding obvious!). Its no 
surprise that even members of AAPG who are within that structure are 
perfectly happy with Creationism - they would probably need to leave 
their husbands/wives, children, church, job, local diner etc, etc 
before they would be ABLE to engage with evolutionary theory. The 
problem - how do we create a place of "social openness" for dialogue to 
take place? Hats off to those fighting for freedom in schools and 
universities, these must be THE places where we struggle for 
intellectual rigour with respect and openness. And perhaps a hawkish 
eye could be kept on our own standpoint and the limits of our 
epistemology...

Tom


On 10 Jun 2005, at 00:17, Andy Rindsberg wrote:

> Forwarded by Andrew K. Rindsberg in Alabama...
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-vrtpaleo@usc.edu [mailto:owner-vrtpaleo@usc.edu] On Behalf 
> Of
> DHCWOLFE@aol.com
> Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2005 6:09 PM
> To: vrtpaleo@usc.edu
> Subject: Re: A new hypothesis... - See AAPG!
>
>
> Hail All
> Sorry to pile on but it's worse than that I guess.
>
> The latest issues of the AAPG Explorer (newsletter/journal for the 
> American
> Association of Petroluem Geologists) have been debating climate change 
> and
> evolution in articles and letters and there are several (geologists,
> chemists and
> engineers I presume....) indicating that  "the fossil record does not
> support
> darwinism..", ID should be "considered as an alternate hypothesis by 
> the
> closed-minded paleontologists"... Climate change is an invention of
> journalists
> with "no scientific basis..."    and of course continuing confusion
> regarding the
> difference between "Creation"/first life and subsequent evolutionary
> process.
>
>
> The misapplication of high school earth science in these letters by 
> people
> who should know better was astounding given the purported audience.    
> All
> the
> more disturbing given the huge role that Petroleum exploration has had 
> in
> developing the biostratigraphic, geochemical, and 
> sealevel/stratigraphic
> record so
> important to our understanding of Earth History.
>
> I was depressed for days.   So thank you for humoring me this 
> therapeutic
> chance to vent.    I feel better now (....except for the vague notion 
> that I
> am
> somehow a member of a vanishing and obscure cult of mythical
> practices.....).
>
> Courage
>
> DG Wolfe
> P.I.  Zuni Basin Paleo Project
>
> "A ship in the harbour is safe...but that's not what ships were made 
> for
> ...." (plaque on desk)
>
> -- 
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>
Tom Dunkley Jones
PhD student - Micropalaeontology
University College London
Gower Street
London
WC1E 6BT
0207 679 0165
07977 563927