Another source (free) of Lewontin's article.
The main point of Sagan's book is that better science education and public out-reach efforts by scientists are ways to make our democratic way of life better. Lewontin states clearly that he thinks Sagan is wrong. Lewontin wants (?) us to believe that he believes that education and communication are impotent and useless as tools for dealing with the gap between "the scientific elite" and the public in general. Lewontin moans, "Our dilemma is that we do not know how to provide people with the power to discover the truth."
With the battle line between Sagan and Lewontin clearly drawn, what are we, the readers to make of this dispute? Lewontin spends much of his article dancing around his political interpretation of the conflict between the "scientific elite" and the public in general. Lewontin tries to paint Sagan as a member of the "scientific elite" who is part of the problem (just another atheist wasting the public's money on a stupid search for Little Green Men) and totally unable to provide us with any useful guidance (what Lewontin seems to really want delivered is a political revolution.....more power to the people) about how to deal with the gap between "the scientific elite" and the public in general. Thus, we are reduced to yet another ugly illustration of the fact that scientists are only human, stuck in the same bickering and confusion as the rest of humanity.
I am in Carl Sagan's camp. I agree with Lewontin that we need to empower the public at large to be able to discover the truth. But I also agree with Carl Sagan that two of the best tools we have for doing this are good science education and popularizations of science. I think Lewontin is the elitist. His own words reveal him, "The vast majority of us do not have control of the intellectual apparatus needed to explain manifest reality in material terms, so in place of scientific explanations, we substitute demons." Carl is dead, so I must take the liberty of using my imagination to construct how Carl would have argued his case against Lewontin. Carl says, "Yes, Richard, that is the sad truth, but education is the path to fixing this problem." Lewontin says, "Sorry Carl, but you are nuts. Your dream that education and communication between scientists and the public can make things better is futile wishful thinking." Carl would say, "The key intellectual apparatus needed to explain manifest reality in material terms is the individual human brain, I believe that when encouraged, each person has what it takes to build an understanding of reality on science rather than demons."
There are several other low blows in Lewontin's hatchet job on Carl Sagan. Lewontin mouths his version of the standard scientific elite's charges against Carl: "Sagan, in his popularizations of science, is expecting the public to accept anything that he (Carl) says as the Gospel Truth of Science. Thus, Carl is just acting as a High Priest of Science. And of course, Sagan is often dead wrong in what he is saying. Sagan spreads misrepresentations and errors about scientific issues like seeds flying off dandelions in Spring. Sagan does more harm than good, feeding the gullible masses on Sagan's brand of Fairy tales that are little better than the other crap most people already believe." Lewontin is clearly one of the majority of scientists with far less talent than Sagan for communicating with the public at large. Like most scientists, Lewontin thrives on fame, and it crushes him that his wonderful contributions to science have not given him the kind of fame that Carl Sagan achieved. That Lewontin can describe Sagan as a "Conscientious and wholly admirable popularizer of science" and yet also argue that Sagan's efforts are a wasted and useless scam, only serves to illustrate Lewontin's lack of understanding and commitment to education and his deep envy of Carl's successes.
One final point that stands out in Lewontin's tirade against Sagan and Science in general is embedded in his attack on how Carl deals with the issue of faith and the existence of God. This is a topic that deeply interested Carl and his popular book and movie, Contact, deals with this issue in a way that is fresh and pure "Carl" in character. I might suggest that Lewontin read Contact, but I suspect it would be like spreading seeds on cement. Sagan clearly believes that science cannot disprove the existence of probably-unreal things (like the existence of magical elves, God, immortal souls). So what should science have to say about such probably-unreal things? Lewontin condemns Carl for not being able to flatly say, "God does not exist". Amazingly, after so chastising Sagan, Lewontin turns around and condemns Sagan and all of Science for accepting materialism a priori. Lewontin ends up arguing that belief in God is not really any different than belief in materialism. Worse, belief in God comes naturally to humans, while belief in science (quantum mechanics, relativity, cells in brains create the mind, etc.) is against common sense. Lewontin argues that Sagan's dream that education can free humanity from this paradox (demons seem real, the truth of material reality seems unreal) is hopeless and naive. In the end, we must hope that Carl was right and that Lewontin is just a bitter old man trapped in his own self-created hopelessness. As the off-spring of simple Iowa farmers who has seen his father go from a small Lutheran community and the family farm to Darwinism and a career devoted to science education and as someone who has stepped from a small New England town where a big white church still dominates the town square into the world of scientific discovery that is revealing how our minds are produced by the molecules and cells in our brains, I must stand with Carl Sagan. We can liberate humanity from our self-created demons, and Carl Sagan will be remembered for having led the way.
-John Schmidt
This is a continuation of the comments I previously made concerning Lewontin's more direct attacks on Carl Sagan and his book The Demon-Haunted World. A large part of Lewontin's article seems aimed at refuting Carl Sagan's fundamental position which is that Science can be a candle in the darkness where humanity's demons reside. It is a bit sad to see a scientist like Lewontin using the well-known human weaknesses of his fellow scientists and the all too human limitations of scientific institutions as an excuse to tear down Sagan's constructive efforts.
If we follow along with Lewontin's argument, we must assume that Lewontin thinks that Carl Sagan was unaware of the weaknesses and limitations of science which Lewontin discusses. Lewontin must expect us to believe that it was Carl Sagan's ignorance of the realities of science that allowed him to craft a book (The Demon-Haunted World) that, according to Lewontin, is fundamentally flawed (or to use the dramatic and hopefully devastating one word put-down that is favored within science, as Lewontin does, "wrong"). This idea is ludicrous from start to finish, and it is only Lewontin's safe position within the citadel of the scientific elite that allows him to offer such a silly and groundless attack on Sagan, who has been a perennial whipping boy for the stodgy old guard of the scientific establishment.
A major theme of The Demon-Haunted World is the idea that humans take naturally to observing the world we find ourselves in and constructing strategies for survival based on practical knowledge gained from every-day experience. How have most humans gotten dinner, by crafting a spear and going to a known game trail or sitting in a temple and waiting for a prayer to deliver the next meal? Certainly a clever minority have figured out how to get a meal with a prayer, but for the vast majority of humans it is more mundane types of practical knowledge of reality that brings home the bacon. Based on observation of my own children, I must agree with Carl: if given the chance, the natural curiosity of children will make them explore physical reality and question authoritative claims that they cannot confirm through personal experience. Rather than let Sagan run with this reality, Lewontin wants us to submit helplessly to the simultaneous and contradictory reality: if children are force-fed beliefs in witches and demons and not permitted to challenge such beliefs with their own personal doubts and questions then they will grow up believing in witches and demons and in turn pass those beliefs on to their children. I stand prepared to follow Sagan into battle against the demons. If we try, we can use science to keep humanity rooted in reality. Lewontin offers nothing else, just his gloom and doom view of Sagan's positive message that Science can be a candle in the dark as being hopelessly naive. Many "hopelessly naive" people have died for ideas such as "slavery is wrong" and "one person, one vote". I'd rather go down fighting along side Sagan than sit on the side lines with Lewontin. For what possible purpose does Lewontin whine and complain about Sagan's "ten-second-seat-of-the-pants explanations of social realities" when he (Lewontin) has no rational argument against Sagan's idea (if it can be called "Sagan's idea" rather than a common sense view that has driven the growth of democracy in modern times)?
Why, indeed. Lewontin tries to make us believe that his real gripe with Sagan is that if Sagan is honestly trying to get people to flock to science rather than to non-science, then Sagan should use a scientifically-based argument rather than rhetoric. Lewontin seems to fall back on the standard party line of the scientific old guard: scientists have no right to say anything to the public beyond what their peers allowed them to publish in peer-reviewed journals. The dilemma is that the public does not care if Sagan publishes articles describing the physio-chemical properties of planets. And while the public may flock to hear Sagan talk about the chances for extraterrestrial life and the importance of SETI, all they will get is Sagan's unscientific rhetoric, since there is no real science of extraterrestrial life. Lewontin claims that Sagan's faith in the power of scientific education is "unscientific" in the same way as was Nazi propaganda about a Master Race.
It is hard to imagine that Lewontin seriously expected readers to buy this anti-Sagan argument. While academics like Lewontin are hiding in the safety of their jargon-filled professional journals after having been beaten into submission by the nay-sayers in the army of cultural relativists who have flourished on university campuses, a few courageous scientists like Sagan continue to do what they can to bridge the gap between the sterile world of science facts and the real world of human concerns. I agree with Carl that it is the responsibility of scientists to do this. Science is a complex and messy human endeavor, not just the safe and stuffy academic pursuit favored by Lewontin. We make an honest attempt to recognize the pitfalls and limitations in applying our scientific experiences to our social problems and give it our best shot, in spite of our human limitations. That is all that humans have ever been able to do as we try to survive. Old scientists are renowned as a group that includes large numbers of the most conservative stick-in-the-muds to be found in human societies. Lewontin plays the role well.
Why is Lewontin so willing to be seen as a prophet of doom in contrast to Sagan's positive message? Lewontin may attempt to portray himself as the realist, willing to face hard facts while Sagan dreams useless fantasies, but it is hard to accept Lewontin's posturing. Lewontin clearly has an ax to grind with his fellow scientists about how biology has evolved in this century. In Biology, the second half of the 20th century was dominated by a kind of DNA-mania. Lewontin is a classic old-guard anti-DNA-mania reactionary. Inclusion of Lewontin's anti-DNA-mania preaching in a review of The Demon-Haunted World is distracting and inappropriate. Apparently, Lewontin has no other outlet for his frustrations so he slipped them into his review of Sagan's book. In fact, I suspect he was more interested in venting his anti-DNA-mania sentiments than reviewing Carl's book.
Lewontin tries to argue that pop-culture science gurus like Sagan are no better than the UFO-nuts that Sagan debunks in The Demon-Haunted World. Just as UFO enthusiasts talk loudly about UFO sightings but never seem to be able to show the world an actual alien spaceship, Lewontin complains that scientific charlatans like Sagan tell good stories to the public but never seem to get around to backing up those stories with facts. Lewontin points to the War on Cancer as evidence of how even the most prominent parts of science are nothing but shell games played out for a gullible public. Yes, these days we are bombarded by a steady stream of news stories about the latest "breakthroughs" in the War on Cancer, yet, somehow, even though billions of dollars are spent, cancer has not been eliminated.
Lewontin then expands the target of his disdain to include most of modern
biomedical research which has become captivated with DNA-mania. A major
goal in biology today is to identify and understand each of the thousands of genes that make us what we are as a species. Since old-guard scientists like Chargaff were first displaced by the gun-slinging molecular biologists like Watson and Crick, these complaints have been heard:
"it is futile to study DNA. Nothing we have learned by sequencing genes has told us anything useful about human biology or helped to cure a single patient."
It is a well worn litany. And more ridiculous with each passing day and each utterance in smoke-filled faculty clubs or the pages of The New York Review. It is true that many worth-while research programs have been left under-funded while hot topics
like the human genome project and AIDS research attract huge flows of cash.
Science funding and the allocation of resources for biology research is
an imperfect human endeavor. So what? Okay, I feel sorry that Lewontin
has had to watch young whipper-snappers like Watson get to spend billions
while Lewontin's field of study has gone under-funded. But what does this
have to do with Carl Sagan? Lewontin is also jealous that Sagan has been
able to attract a few dollars to SETI.
It is ironic that Lewontin singled out cancer research as the
special target of his ire. Carl Sagan died from a cancer-like blood disease.
Sagan's personal battle with cancer is fairly typical. His life was prolonged
and he was almost saved by the War on Cancer. Lewontin's claims that the
War on Cancer has been fruitless is silly. Certainly there are many battles
left in this war, but we now at least know the enemy. There are millions
of people alive today who would otherwise have been dead if there had been
no War on Cancer and no DNA-mania within biology. One example is the AIDS
epidemic. It was only because of basic research on DNA and cancer that
any serious medical response to the HIV virus was possible. Lewontin displays
his ignorance when he derides the
"immense amount of money and consciousness
wasted devoted to the supposed oncogenic viruses which being infectious
bugs could be exterminated or at least resisted. But these particular Unidentified Flying Objects turned out for the most part to be as elusive as the Martians, and so, without publicly calling attention to their come-uppance, the General Staff turned from outside intruders to the enemy within, the genes."
I have to explain why this is a stupid thing to say, and really inexcusable
for a biologist who should know better.
Near the start of this century, a time when nobody knew what a virus was or what a gene was made of, a chicken farmer in New York was having trouble with his flocks: his chickens were dying. He went to N.Y.U. to try to get help, and a scientist was able to determine that the chickens were dying of cancer caused by a communicable UFO. It wasn't until the age of DNA-mania (which Lewontin condemns) that this UFO was identified as a retrovirus. Study of this chicken retrovirus led to identification of the v-src gene, one of the first two recognized cancer-causing genes, and much of what was known about retroviruses when AIDS exploded upon humanity. Only by the determined effort of a few courageous scientists, who for years resisted nay-sayers like Lewontin and persisted in their study of retroviruses, was humanity in any way prepared for HIV (a retrovirus) and the AIDS epidemic. Robert Gallo continued to look for human retroviruses when most biologists had given up and moved on to other aspects of the War on Cancer. Gallo was the one person in this country prepared to rapidly identify HIV as a retrovirus and quickly provide a means to screen the blood supply for HIV-contaminated blood. Without DNA-mania and a few determined UFO chasers, the AIDS epidemic would have been far worse. Millions owe their lives to this one minor footnote in biology, a minor detail in the War on Cancer which Lewontin's telling of the story would have the public ignore. Yes, biologists often pursue hypotheses for mistaken reasons and prove them to be wrong or incomplete. So what? That is how science works. There are few oncogenic human viruses, but that does not mean it was a mistake to look for them. Lewontin knows this, and to let his jealousy lead him to public statements that cloud these issues is in my judgment, inexcusable.
Yes, the economic realities of biomedical research are such that medical research centers employ publicists who create public relations events for the mass media to announce significant research results in the War on Cancer. Yes, this preys on the sick and their families, but it brings significant financial support to the War on Cancer. Medical doctors are willing to do almost anything to help their patients, even give them false hopes and ask them for money. All of this offends Lewontin who has had to endure the financial neglect of his academically cloistered sub-field in biology. Scientists recognize the dangers of confounding the tax-paying public with repeated promises and requests for billions of dollars, but scientists are pragmatists. If the only way to get money to fight cancer is by making a seemingly endless series of promises, then that is what they will do. It ain't pretty, but it is all we have. Lewontin certainly offers no alternative.
Carl Sagan was certainly aware of all these ugly facts about the scientifc process. How then do we account for the different conclusions drawn from these facts by Sagan and Lewontin? Sagan struggled to move the process ahead, to fix problems and make things better. Lewontin feels cheated that Sagan was able to obtain resources to support planetary science and SETI while Lewontin's field remained a quite back water. Lewontin's real problem with Sagan seems to be a case of sour grapes.
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