Irish Minister for Science in Anti-Science Scandal

[Ian David]

I file this one under, “what the hell was he thinking?” The Irish Minister for Science had planned to attend the launching of an anti-intellectual, anti-scientific ignorant rant in book form and apparently did not see any problem with this until he was widely and publicly criticized. Then he withdrew – at the request of the author, it is rather dubiously claimed.

Conor Lenihan, the Minister of Science, wanted to support his friend and constituent, John May. Apart from being the leader of the V-resistance, May is also the author of a book called The Origin of Specious Nonsense, in which he calls evolution, “A Hoax”, “A Joke”, “A Fantasy”, “An Impossibility”, “A Fiction”, “A Fairytale For Adults”, “The greatest deceit in the history of science.” May’s book is a triumph of ignorance over information (more on that below).

Lenihan’s support for this book is nothing short of a Scandal. First, he is the Minister of Science and it is profoundly naive of him to think that he can personally support a book like May’s and separate his personal support from that of his office. Officials make this mistake all the time, and frankly I always have a hard time believing that they believe it. Rather I think it is either intellectually lazy or disingenuous. Those on the fringe are desperate for validation, and they will grasp at any apparent validation to promote themselves. So when a university sponsors a talk, the reputation of that university will be invoked to support the speaker. When an official recognizes the existence of a crank, that crank will use that recognition as official support. When a new program showcases a nutjob, that news program will forever be emblazoned on the nutjob’s website.

The Irishtimes reports:

Speaking from Galway earlier last night, Mr Lenihan said while he “remained to be convinced” by Mr May’s arguments, he would be attending the launch in a personal capacity and as he believed “diversity of opinion is a good thing”. However following Mr May’s request he has withdrawn from the launch.

More:
http://www.theness.com/neurologicablog/?p=2313&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter