Kicking the Sacred Cow
By addebook • Oct 2nd, 2008 • Category: Astronomy & Geography
Kicking the Sacred Cow
Kicking the Sacred Cow
By James P. Hogan
Publisher: Baen
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2004-07-06
ISBN-10 / ASIN: 0743488288
ISBN-13 / EAN: 9780743488280
Binding: Hardcover
Summary: Startling and mostly persuasive.
Rating: 5
Most educated persons in modern society believe that science and scientific theories about the world are based upon the scientific method–the relentless search for knowledge based solely on hard facts as observed in nature. Galileo exemplifies our view of how science progresses; providing an example of a brave and brilliant man applying scientific findings to a skeptical world regardless of the consequences. Most people believe that the modern world allows science to thrive because scientists relentlessly apply the scientific method to their theories, and thus theories that are not supported by objective data are inevitably cast aside in favor of better theories that are. Most of us believe that in the modern world, a Galileo would receive acclaim and research funding, not vilification and suppression. In this piece Mr. Hogan tells us: “Not so fast…”
Hogan’s writings in this book question the above view of much of modern science to an astounding degree. Far from constituting a community of skeptics in the relentless pursuit of scientific truth, author Hogan thoroughly documents numerous instances in which the scientific community is highly politicized in favor of certain conventional theories, and scientific data is selectively, and perhaps dishonestly, applied in order to support these theories. In numerous instances leading scientists appear to have established a vested interest by way of reputations and prestige in certain theories. Documented instances exist in which those scientists who question this orthodoxy have been treated not with constructive analysis, but by political and financial suppression and professional demotion and exclusion. This is not how science is supposed to work, but Mr. Hogan does an excellent job of showing the reader that the scientific community in many instances has behaved not as a body engaged in the selfless pursuit of knowledge, but as a self-interested and politicized group much like any other human endeavor, riven with factions and controlled by, of course, whoever controls the purse strings and research grants. Not surprisingly, often the government is involved in the suppression of unorthodox scientists by preventing such scientists from obtaining funding, or sometimes even the right to publish their theories or participate in scientific conferences and seminars.
Hogan provides many examples of the scientific community’s rejection and suppression of dissenting points of view. To name a few:
AIDS Research. As everyone knows, the dominant theory regarding the cause of AIDS is that the disease is caused by a highly contagious virus, that is usually sexually transmitted. Thus AIDS is a viral disease much as Polio is also caused by a virus. The only problem is, upon examination the “evidence” that the so-called HIV organism causes AIDS is extremely questionable. In fact the foregoing conventional theory is not supported by Koch’s Theorem or the other usual tools that scientists use to determine whether a given microbe causes a specific disease. Mr. Hogan shows us that AIDS prevalence statistics have been hopelessly hyped to an extent that bears no resemblance to reality. Data has been selectively applied to fit the theory, rather than the other way around as we are taught that science is supposed to do things. More than twenty years, countless billions of dollars and many lives later, we are no closer to a cure or vaccine against AIDS than we were in 1985 when the conventional theory of AIDS was unveiled. It seems certain that the problem is that all of the research dollars are being spent to attack a virus (HIV) which does not cause AIDS or any disease. Scientists of the highest integrity such as Dr. Peter Duesberg who have questioned AIDS scientific orthodoxy (and presented simpler, and more elegant explanations of what is happening that actually fits the observed data) have been vilified, suppressed, and denied funding in a manner reminiscent of the way that society treated Galileo. Far from welcoming newer, and perhaps better, theories, the scientific establishment has largely closed ranks against anyone who might upset the AIDS applecart. After all, billions of dollars in AZT and other drug sales, research grants upon which scientists’ livelihoods depend, and lots of other goodies are dependent upon maintaining the status quo. “The Science is settled” the public is told. One thing Mr. Hogan teaches in this book is that whenever the media tells us this, that the public should beware.
The ban against DDT is another sad chapter in science, according to Mr. Hogan. We have all been taught that DDT was the cause of horrific harm to eagles, birds in general, and other beloved species. This resulted in a worldwide ban on what in reality is probably one of the most valuable and ecologically neutral substances ever discovered. Mr. Hogan makes a convincing case that the science behind the ban on DDT was flatly unsound. The result has been perhaps hundreds of millions of deaths caused by maleria in Africa and other places with limited worldwide political clout due to lobbying efforts by powerful and politicized groups against DDT. Scientists who have tried to speak out against this dysfunction in the political system have been suppressed. A familiar story.
Global Warming. Every educated person would do well to read Mr. Hogan’s analysis of the global warming controversy. Here we again see a tight group of scientists, media, and politicians selectively applying some facts, rejecting others, in favor of one theory concerning the climate which theory remains completely unproven. Hogan shows us that in particular the global warming (or “climate change”) hype is based on the careful exclusion of important data so that data can be selectively applied to support the desired result, i.e. that bigger government, more regulation over ordinary people, and higher taxes are necessary to fight “climate change.” Read the book. Mr. Hogan is persuasive.
I do not buy all of the theories that Mr. Hogan seems to support. I do not know enough about the science to be able follow some of the arguments that Mr. Hogan presents. (For example, the startling theories of Immanual Velokovsky seem to me to be perhaps too incredible to be true, but I am no astrophysicist.) But I know a persuasive presentation of a case when I see one. The author cites a regrettable array of instances in which established scientists denounce theories that they admit that they have not even read or examined. Mr. Hogan makes an excellent case that the scientific establishment is not merely a selfless group of hard-headed skeptics engaged in the relentless search for truth. To the contrary, he shows us that depressingly often the scientific establishment acts like any other special interest group and is often swayed by money, politicization, and the other lures of modern society. Hogan is particularly persuasive on the AIDS and climate change controversies, but there is a lot more than those theories discussed in this excellent book. The theory of evolution, the light-speed limit and relativity, and many other accepted theories are questioned in a wide-ranging presentation of alternative theories derived from the work of competent scientists (whether they turn out to be right or not), but rejected by the present orthodoxy.
It has been said that all true science quickly becomes engineering, because engineering has to actually work to be successful. All else is just speculation. Mr. Hogan does a good job of promoting this useful perspective in this excellent book. He will make the thoughtful reader question what we actually “know” about the universe, and frankly, one wonders what scientific thought will be like in a few hundred years.
Summary: A new “Lo!”
Rating: 3
Charles Fort (1874-1932) was one of America’s more entertaining eccentrics. For thirty years he pored and pondered over newspaper reports of the unusual, the anomalous, the unexplained and the downright hinky. From time to time, he would gather up his clippings for book publication: “The Book of the Damned” (1919), “New Lands” (1923) and “Lo!” (1931). The title of the last derived from Fort’s notion that scientists were forever pointing up at the skies and exclaiming “Lo!”
In the 1930s, the pulp magazine industry opened up a new niche by publishing what would come to be called science fiction. The Street and Smith entry into this new market was called “Astounding Stories of Super Science.” (It would evolve into “Astounding Stories,” “Astounding Science Fiction” and finally “Analog.”) Shortly after Fort’s death, Astounding discovered him and the magazine loved what it saw. The new science fiction fans, a virtually all-male demographic ranging from age 10 to 25, loved the unusual, the anomalous, the unexplained and they were themselves, often as not, downright hinky. Month after month, the magazine ran hefty chunks of the books sandwiched between tales of time travel, scantily-clad space women and tentacled invaders. The fans ate it up.
Fort’s material was popular but finite in volume. Eventually it ran out, but the taste for the stuff was so firmly established among the readers that Astounding regularly ran “hard science” articles along with the fiction–and so did the other pulp SF mags. Contributors to the hard science sections included some of the most illustrious names in American science fiction: Willy Ley, Fletcher Pratt, L. Sprague de Camp, Robert S. Richardson, Hal Clement and, of course, Isaac Asimov. Many, indeed most of these articles were informative, well-researched and otherwise admirable examples of popular science reporting.
On the other hand, that Fortean hinky-factor never entirely disappeared. Magazine science fiction fans of a certain age will remember the ominous syllables of “The Dean Machine” with either a shudder or an uproarious laugh.
Jim Baen of Baen Books was once upon a time the editor of Analog. James P. Hogan is a science fiction writer. The whole tone and feel of “Kicking the Sacred Cow” is exactly the tone and feel of those old “hard science” articles.
Hogan clearly believes in a dichotomy in what the world calls “science.” There are theorists and there are engineers. Here is his credo: “Science really doesn’t exist. Scientific beliefs are either proved wrong, or else they quickly become engineering. Everything else is untested speculation.” [Page 1 of the mass paperback edition]
Introductions and prefaces are really very useful things. It’s a pity that more people do not read them. In the introduction to this one, Hogan very kindly tells us what the book is all about: “This book is not concerned with cranks or simple die-hards, who are entitled to their foibles and come as part of life’s pattern, Rather, it looks at instances of present-day orthodoxies tenaciously defending beliefs in the face of what would appear to be verified fact and plain logic, or doggedly closing eyes and minds to ideas whose time has surely come. In short, where scientific authority seems to be functioning more in the role of religion protecting doctrine and putting down heresy than championing the spirit of free inquiry that science should be.” [Page 8]
From that, it is plain to see that Hogan has donned his armor and has settled himself on his destrier in preparation for a joust with all manner of scientific dragons. Among those dragons are mathematical and observational cosmology, the theories of relativity, the astronomical catastrophism and historical revisionism of Velikovsky, global warming, DDT, AIDS and Darwinism.
Now that is a wide range. I certainly haven’t the knowledge to comment with any expertise on all those subjects. Off hand, I can’t think of anybody that I would regard as equally authoritative on cosmology, the effects of DDT on ecology and “intelligent design.” After reading this book, I am depressingly positive that James P. Hogan is not.
I should make it clear that some of Hogan’s ideas sound reasonable to me. I think that his screed against the banning of DDT, for instance, is pretty convincing. On the other hand, his defense of Velikovsky is hilariously wrong-headed. (An attitude, I am sure, Hogan would toss right back at me–in spades!) In between those extremes is his attack on “orthodox” cosmology in which he advances a number of theories that smite it root and branch without ever managing to take note of the fact that each of those theories contradicts all the others as firmly as they do the Big Bang.
So far, so good. There are unquestionably a few grains of gold among the dross. Many books in this general category of writing can’t offer even as much as that.
Read this book not as a declaration of war but as an amusing set of notions ranging from “could be” to “not a chance”.
Three stars.
Summary: Thinking Optional?
Rating: 5
As a long time reader of science fiction and a reader of Hogan’s previous work, I approached this book with relish and I was not disappointed.
I find it interesting that many of the negative reviews that I read seemed to have been written by persons who made up their minds prior to reading the book. I could be wrong, but their comments tend to support the views that Mr. Hogan expressed in the book. -There are no sacred cows in science (or there should not be), and any substantive subject should be examined from all angles before any final pronouncements are made.
I will not attempt to defend or garble the arguments made in the book, but I am intrigued by the venom that they inspire. I can only ask the following question, make one observation, and give my thoughts on the book:
1) Has it ever been recorded that one instance where, “Everybody knows,” was right?
2) James Hogan does not present any of his arguments as the last word in science, he does not pretend to have all of the facts; he only attempts to reopen the discussion and our minds.
3) The book is worthy of study, well written, presents countervailing opinions to scientific ‘fact’, and it chaps the backside of every person who lives in an immutable and dogmatic (spoon-fed) -world. I highly recommend it to anyone who really wants to think about the greatest issues that face humanity in our time. It is an argument for free thought and scientific rigor and it exposes the modern blacklisting of persons who dare to question conventional wisdom. It isn’t easy and it challenges us to use our own minds. Read it and make up your mind AFTER you read it.
Summary: Excellent overview of current “Sacred Cows”
Rating: 5
By some of the other reviews it’s obvious Mr. Hogan has rattled some cages. Similarly to other books challenging current orthodox dogma, especially in the area of evolution, this one causes fits in those whose world-view is threatened by its claims.
From other sources I am familiar with most of the issues Hogan reviews in this book. He gives a good overview. He’s probably not right about everything, but I suspect he’s right about some of it. My only complaint was the sections are too short; I would have liked to see more depth, especially in some areas.
Overall a good, thought-provoking read for those who aren’t afraid of a look at “out of the box” ideas.
Summary: cowtipping at it’s finest?
Rating: 5
if you don’t have enough spare thoughts, this will generate a few. the topics covered are large, and his discussion is generally thorough, coherent, and convincing, although i feel much is left out of his entire argument on ecology.
if you are not careful, you may find your paradigm shifting gears before you are ready. you certainly will be more well-versed in your understanding of the issues. whether you are cognizant of the red-shift and it’s pertinence to the theories of origins of the universe, or looking at non-darwinian evolution, you will surprise yourself in here.
it didn’t sound like it would be fun, but it is. have fun.
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