The controversy over my dismissal from "The Amateur Scientist" has been characterized by irony. Were he alive today, Rufus Porter, the founding editor of Scientific American, would be fired from his own publication, for he advocated belief in "Creator God" in the magazine's premier issue in 1845. Since Porter actually wrote about God and I promised not to, his offense was infinitely more embarrassing than mine.
Another irony is that the roots of "The Amateur Scientist" can be traced to the November 1925 issue, the cover of which proclaimed, "The Heavens Declare the Glory of God." This quotation from the Book of Psalms was the title of an article by Albert Ingalls that paved the way for a column on amateur astronomy that eventually became "The Amateur Scientist."
Of course the ultimate irony is that Jonathan Piel, editor of Scientific American, continues to find himself the focus of the public ...
