The Debate Over Design Gains Momentum with a New Peer-Reviewed Science Journal: BIO-Complexity — April 30th, 2010 by Douglas Axe
It’s no secret that the scientific establishment is decidedly against not just the idea of intelligent design but also the idea of debating that idea. They just wish the whole subject would go away. That being the case, most establishment-minded scientists will, I suspect, thoroughly disapprove of BIO-Complexity, a new science journal that positively welcomes the scientific debate [1].
Now, I usually sympathize with those who want troublemakers to stop making trouble. Trouble has a bad name for good reasons. But on the other hand, we often find ourselves looking back with gratitude at certain troublemakers of the past—people who persisted in shaking things up, usually at great personal cost, until their cause won the day.
It seems to me that the trouble ID has brought on the science academy is of this more noble kind. Like all scientific controversies, this one is about ideas. And while ideas can be very powerful, they only become dangerous when no one is allowed to critique them openly. Where scrutiny is encouraged, the worst that an idea can be is false. Where it is forbidden, things can get much worse (as history shows).