News Media
Scientists not as newsworthy as church-goers?
The York Daily Record (Dover, PA) ran an article (“Church Backs Dover Board” Sunday, Dec. 20) about a local church that is endorsing the Dover School Board’s recent decision to mandate the teaching of intelligent design. Why is it news when 300 church goers weigh in on the issue, but not when 300 scientists make their dissent from Darwin known?
Discovery’s Logan Gage sent this letter to the editor to the YDR, which as of yet has not been published:
Dear Editor:
I was shocked the other day when The National Center for Health Statistics reported that less than a third of American teens are having sex. Why? Because judging from T.V. I thought otherwise. Similarly, even though hundreds of doctoral scientists reject Darwinism based upon current scientific data, the American public thinks otherwise because newspaper stories focus on religion rather than the growing scientific controversy.
“Church Backs Dover Board” (Dec. 20) only added to this misperception. Why is it that when scientist dissent from Darwinism no one pays attention, but when church-goers do they get whole articles written about them? The “Fundamentalist Christians vs. Science” stereotype is outdated. There is indeed a scientific controversy over Darwinism. You would perform an invaluable public service by writing articles about it.
It will be interesting to see if YDR will balance out some of the — shall we say less scientific — letters they’ve been running with an informed one such as Logan’s.