SDV, below, gives a rather long list of things that scientists have lied
about.

I would certainly not dissent from the accusation that scientists lie.  (As
many readers may know from my web site
http://freespace.virgin.net/john.hewitt1/  "A Habit of Lies - How Scientists
Cheat.")

However, even I am unsure of all his examples.  Where, for example, is the
lying in the GM foods debate?  In that debate I can see Dr. Pusztai having
been treated rather badly and differences of opinion being voiced
agressively but lying?  Where is that?

John Hewitt


----- Original Message -----
From: sdv <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2000 6:43 PM
Subject: Science and guilt -


> Occasionally I get hints of effects of the messianic work of Sokal et al,
largely
> on American intellectuals - the impact in europe having been solely in
newspapers
> - starting of course from the quite reasonable joke, but jokes have
absolutely no
> intellectual credibility - like comparing a Gilbert and Sullivan opera
with
> Mozart.
>
> But for once - as a report is issued which mildly attempts to whitewash
the
> status of scientists as bearers of truth - after all Althusser's greatest
error
> was to equate science with truth, rather than probability.... Enough is
available
> on the net for you to draw you  own conclusions but here I'd like to throw
my own
> intemperate brick into the glass house.
>
> I'd like to construct a small list of things which scientists have lied
about and
> helped bring about - including - the turning of cattle into cannibals
(cows
> normally eat grass when left to there own devices), they lied to protect
there
> jobs, power bases, reputations, the discourses of science. They lied about
> thalidomide, global warming, the effects of radiation, the testing of
nuclear
> weapons (on humans and nature in the 1950s), the safety of windscalle.
They are
> lying about the safety of GM foods. Mostly all we can do is listen to the
> scientists voices and remember that for science truth does not and cannot
exist.
>
> All we can do is listen for the still quiet voices  which try to warn us
of the
> inherent dangers that scientists (as jurist/priests) and the state
> (magician/king) continually place us in.  The still voices of course
include such
> luminaries as Deleuze, Dumezil and Virillo but not Sokal - physics having
been a
> royal science throughout its usually dubious existence.
>
> http://www.guardian.co.uk
>
> sdv