From: Sehkenenra (Sehkenenra@netzero.net)
Date: Sun Jul 28 2002 - 17:23:55 MDT
>No, I have not noticed that. In fact, religiosity decreases with an
>increased level of education. Most new-age PhD's are from
>non-accredited schools or are self-declared degrees. Real science uses
>real credentials. Of course, what you are referencing above are popular
>writers and best-seller's advertising. They might have different goals
>than would be used by scientists publishing actual research. I doubt in
>the latter case that any scientist would leave off their credentials.
That wasn't exactly what I was talking about. Almost all significant
popular science authors either have a doctorate in a scientific field or are
skilled journalists who are good at interpreting for the masses. I didn't
say that the new age authors have credentials and the science authors do
not- this is clearly not the case. What I'm saying is that Deepak Chopra
seldom fails to append his name with "MD", where as Stephen Hawking and Carl
Sagan don't bother to add "Dr." or "PhD" to their names on their book
covers- it's viewed as unnecessary. On the other hand, speculative books
from the popular science category tend to vary- Michio Kaku didn't bother to
append his name with creds on "Visions", whereas Ben Bova is listed as "Dr."
on the cover of "Immortality" (and, if I'm not mistaken, isn't his doctorate
in English, not a scientific field?)
>If we were actually forming an extropian company to produce a futuristic
>technology and paying people big bucks, I think there would be a much
>higher interest in checking out people's actual experience and
>background before excepting their claims.
Oh, of course! But that's not what I was talking about... I was talking
about popular literature- how the book's cover is used to sell the book, no?
-Nicq MacDonald
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