A follow-up to my posting on Rose, Lewontin, and Kamin: Dawkins used the word �theology� in relation to the ideological beliefs of Rose, Lewontin, and Kamin. Lest you think this is excessive, here is Lewontin, by all accounts a brilliant man in his field (population genetics), on the subject of his particular religion (co-authored with Richard Levins):
�There is nothing in Marx, Lenin, or Mao that is or that can be in contradiction with the particular facts and processes of a particular set of phenomena in the objective world� (From the chapter, �The Problem of Lysenkoism� in Rose, H. and Rose. S. (eds.) *The Radicalisation of Science*, 1976, p. 59.) Lysenko, of course, was the agronomist who was prominent in destroying (sometimes literally) the geneticists working in the USSR in the 1930s. However, according to Lewontin and Levins, Stalin was against the intolerance towards geneticists, but was unable to resist the current. You think I�m joking? Here are Lewontin and Levins again on the �dispute among plant breeders [led by Lysenko] and geneticists� in the chapter �Problem of Lysenkoism� in their book *Dialectical Biologist* (1985): �The exultation in the achievements of the early years of the revolution led to a sense of omnipotence, of daring to do the impossible, of intolerance towards doubters, which Stalin was able to perceive, describe, and denounce, though he could not quite resist it� (p. 184). So Stalin denounced the intolerance towards the geneticists in the USSR, but he could not �quite� resist it. In other words, Stalin was not the all-powerful tyrant that bourgeois commentators have depicted, but an essentially tolerant leader who buckled before the wave of intolerance that swept up the geneticists and deposited them in the Gulag. (Presumably some devious fiends built the Gulag behind Stalin�s back.) Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.human-nature.com/esterson/index.html http://www.butterfliesandwheels.com/articleprint.php?num=10 --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
