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World Science Festival Feeds Public Bogus Science
Part 2 — World Science Festival Feeds Public Bogus Science and Profiles Attendees
Roughly 40 people showed up for evolutionary biologist David Sloan Wilson’s freebie book talk on Saturday afternoon at World Science Festival, sponsored by John Templeton Foundation. A half dozen of those attendees were red-shirted WSF personnel (one of them a notorious Internet troll).
Wilson was not happy to see me walk in. . .
Through the years DS Wilson has been an adviser to Templeton, been a Templeton grantee, as well as a Templeton author. His website has been enabled by a Templeton award.
Astonishingly, Wilson, whose home is Binghamton, New York, thinks “[t]he Darwinian biological revolution is relatively complete with biological sciences.”
Wilson told the audience: “Every one of you has a set of genes, which in part determines who you are. We call that a genotype—phenotype relationship”.
But Wilson has to be aware of The Third Way of Evolution page. . .
Nevertheless, Wilson wants to lead the charge to get governments to adopt Darwinian natural selection as official policy, as our cultural base, and establish a one-world view. However, that has been precisely the problem, Darwinian government. Indeed, scientists over the last decade or so have effectively worked to overthrow the culture of Darwin, led by the brilliance of Carl Woese and others.
Wilson describes himself as a humanist and under his breath admits to being an atheist scientist but says he admires religion’s ability to gather its flocks. He does not address how it gathers its flocks. Chooses not to mention how women are ravaged worldwide by organized religion’s stance on birth control, and children by its sheltering of pedophiles, for example.
Wilson bases his perspective on what he calls group selection. That’s group selection, short for group natural selection. He says selection within groups is disruptive and group level selection is required for cooperation.
Wilson also thinks that individuals who deviate from his group model live in a toxic, stressed-out zone. Da Vinci would not be welcome according to the one-world model. The one-world view wants conformists who will line organizational pockets and make bankers happy.
Incidentally, bankers have clearly had their way with the World Science Festival organization if Wednesday’s “We Will Be Martians” audience profiling is any indication. That event was also sponsored by Templeton.
About five minutes into Wilson’s hour-long lecture about group selection, I asked him what he means by selection. He never does say what natural selection is. Here’s the dialogue:
“Suzan Mazur: Excuse me, what do you mean by selection?
David Wison: Selection? Natural selection.
Suzan Mazur: Natural selection has been debunked by the scientific community. David, you know that. You know that. Why are you lying to the public?
You know that. Look at Eugene Koonin. Look at Jerry Fodor. Look at Richard Lewontin.
Moderator: Let’s let him answer the question.
Suzan Mazur: He needs to seriously define what he means by natural selection.
Moderator: We’re not ready for the question yet.
Suzan Mazur: The whole thing [talk] doesn’t work if he doesn’t define it.
Moderator: You don’t have to listen if you don’t want to.
Suzan Mazur: No, I want to listen because I think it’s really injurious what is going on here.
David Wilson: Why don’t you introduce yourself. Please introduce yourself.
Suzan Mazur: It’s not important who I am. It’s what you are dishing to the audience.
David Wilson: So, what’s at stake here. So we can just demark it. Selection—
Suzan Mazur: Natural selection.
David Wilson: I see.
Woman in Audience: You’re disturbing all of us.
Suzan Mazur: You should be disturbed.
Man in Audience: Unless you can be quiet. . .”
I gave Wilson 35 minutes to deliver his definition of natural selection. Again, he never did define it, despite his continuing rant about group and multilevel selection. Having wasted enough of a rare day in June, I walked out of the Wilson sermon.
OSCILLATIONS 