AUTHOR: James W. Flesher, p.12
The Forrest Mims-Arthur Caplan debate discussed in The Scientist [Feb. 18, 1991, page 11; April 29, 1991, page 12; May 13, 1991, page 14] appears to be a classic case of conflict of religious and hedonist-libertarian ethics. The one was expressed by Mims [February 18 and May 13]; by letters from Mark Hartwig, Kevin Flynn, Walter Hearn, and James Stambaugh [April 29]; and, historically, by Newton and Einstein. The other was expressed by Caplan [February 18 and May 13]; by letters from Jerry Bergman, Daniel Atkinson, Thomas Jukes, and Tim Walker [April 29]; and by the editors of Scientific American. This latter group fears that Mims would promote creation theories in "The Amateur Scientist" column of Scientific American rather than evolution theories but presents no evidence to support this proposition. Their fears lead them to believe that his interpretation of scientific observations would not be...
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