2009-07-13-1A PZ Myers vs. Unscientific America - Part I

2009-07-13 \Chris Mooney\Sheril Kirshenbaum Discover Magazine \Unscientific America\PZ Myers\PZ Myers vs. Unscientific America http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/intersection/2009/07/13/pz-myers-vs-unscientific-america-part-i/ PZ Myers vs. Unscientific America: Part I PZ Myers vs. Unscientific America - Part I  1. Getting Personal? Myers claims that our book contains "very direct and personal attacks on me and on Pharyngula, atheists in general, and anyone who fails to offer religion its proper modicum of respect."

It is hard to know precisely what he means by "very direct and personal attacks," as he doesn’t back up the charge with any evidence.

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2. Pluto. Myers misreads our account of the famous 2006 Pluto demotion. He writes that we "come down on the side of Pluto being redesignated as a planet!" Well, perhaps half-in-jest we did. But that’s hardly the point.

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...that’s a red herring, since the whole point is that unlike, say, whether an atom is larger than an electron, whether Pluto is a "planet" is not purely a scientific matter. It is, to a very large degree, a matter of semantics. Moreover, it also involves history (Pluto had been a "planet" since 1930) and culture – which the scientists involved in Pluto’s demotion were pretty insensitive to.

So right at the outset of our book, Myers takes the wrong message from the opening anecdote.

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3. What the Book Actually Says. Normally book reviews first describe what an author is arguing or claiming, and only then proceed to takes issue with some of their claims. It is Myers' prerogative, but this is not how he proceeds. Rather, he judges the entire first chapter, which lays out the book’s argument, on the basis of the opening Pluto section – and then goes on to say, "This chapter was symptomatic of the deficiencies of the whole book." Yet Myers never lets his readers in on what’s actually being argued.

4. Carl Sagan. When it comes to the greatest science communicator of modern times, we get no disagreement from Myers about, er, his greatness. But then things go wrong. Response: 2009-07-13 Unscientific America, the gift that keeps on giving

M&K respond to 4 areas of disagreement with PZ Myers's reviews of their book Unscientific America, under the headings of "Getting Personal?", "Pluto", "What the Book Actually Says", and "Carl Sagan".   