Posts
“It is simply no longer possible to believe much of the clinical research that is published, or to rely on the judgment of trusted physicians or authoritative medical guidelines. I take no pleasure in this conclusion, which I reached slowly and reluctantly over my two decades as an editor of The New England Journal of Medicine.” Dr. Marcia Angell, NY Review of Books, January 15, 2009, “Drug Companies and Doctors: A Story of Corruption"
“The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness…
“The apparent endemicity of bad research behaviour is alarming. In their quest for telling a compelling story, scientists too often sculpt data to fit their preferred theory of the world. Or they retrofit hypotheses to fit their data. Journal editors deserve their fair share of criticism too. We aid and abet the worst behaviours. Our acquiescence to the impact factor fuels an unhealthy competition to win a place in a select few journals. Our love of ‘significance’ pollutes the literature with many a statistical fairy-tale…Journals are not the only miscreants. Universities are in a perpetual struggle for money and talent…” Dr. Richard Horton, editor-in-chief, The Lancet, in The Lancet, 11 April, 2015, Vol 385, “Offline: What is medicine’s 5 sigma?”
'Hysterical safety-ism is the mark of a society that has passed its peak. The West has subsided to a geriatric phase of high anxiety and low expectations.' Lionel Shriver, this week's Spectator
'We have sought truth, and sometimes perhaps found it. But have we had any fun?' Marginalia by Dr Benjamin Jowett ('All there is to know I know it.')
"crudelis ubique luctus, ubique pavor et plurima mortis imago. (Everywhere there is harsh tragedy, everywhere fear and countless visions of death.)" The Aeneid, Book 2, line 369, acknowledgments Laudator Temporis Acti
"His unjust contempt for foreigners was, indeed, extreme. One evening, at Old Slaughter's Coffee-house, when a number of them were talking loud about little matters, he said 'Does not this confirm old Meynell's observation, For any thing I see, foreigners are fools?'" James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson
"est generosius, in sua quidquid sede gignitur; insitum alienae terrae in id quo alitur, natura vertente se, degenerat.
(Whatever grows in its own soil has greater excellence; transplanted to another soil, its nature being modified to suit that in which it grows, it loses its virtue.)" Livy 38.17.13 , acknowledgments Laudator Temporis Acti
“The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue. Afflicted by studies with small sample sizes, tiny effects, invalid exploratory analyses, and flagrant conflicts of interest, together with an obsession for pursuing fashionable trends of dubious importance, science has taken a turn towards darkness…
“The apparent endemicity of bad research behaviour is alarming. In their quest for telling a compelling story, scientists too often sculpt data to fit their preferred theory of the world. Or they retrofit hypotheses to fit their data. Journal editors deserve their fair share of criticism too. We aid and abet the worst behaviours. Our acquiescence to the impact factor fuels an unhealthy competition to win a place in a select few journals. Our love of ‘significance’ pollutes the literature with many a statistical fairy-tale…Journals are not the only miscreants. Universities are in a perpetual struggle for money and talent…” Dr. Richard Horton, editor-in-chief, The Lancet, in The Lancet, 11 April, 2015, Vol 385, “Offline: What is medicine’s 5 sigma?”
'Hysterical safety-ism is the mark of a society that has passed its peak. The West has subsided to a geriatric phase of high anxiety and low expectations.' Lionel Shriver, this week's Spectator
'We have sought truth, and sometimes perhaps found it. But have we had any fun?' Marginalia by Dr Benjamin Jowett ('All there is to know I know it.')
"crudelis ubique luctus, ubique pavor et plurima mortis imago. (Everywhere there is harsh tragedy, everywhere fear and countless visions of death.)" The Aeneid, Book 2, line 369, acknowledgments Laudator Temporis Acti
"I want to go to Europe, Alyosha, I'll go straight from here. Of course I know that I will only be going to a graveyard, but to the most, the most precious graveyard, that's the thing! The precious dead lie there, each stone over them speaks of such ardent past life, of such passionate faith in their deeds, their truth, their struggle, and their science, that I—this I know beforehand—will fall to the ground and kiss those stones and weep over them—being wholeheartedly convinced, at the same time, that it has all long been a graveyard and nothing more." Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881), The Brothers Karamazov, Book V, Chapter 3, Acknowledgments Laudator Temporis Acti
"We do not believe in artificial borders. We have a vision of unrestricted immigration and emigration, where people have the right to live and work wherever they please… We want Sweden to become an international role model by producing a plan to implement unrestricted immigration." Swedish Green Party website, 2010.
"We do not believe in artificial borders. We have a vision of unrestricted immigration and emigration, where people have the right to live and work wherever they please… We want Sweden to become an international role model by producing a plan to implement unrestricted immigration." Swedish Green Party website, 2010.
"est generosius, in sua quidquid sede gignitur; insitum alienae terrae in id quo alitur, natura vertente se, degenerat.
(Whatever grows in its own soil has greater excellence; transplanted to another soil, its nature being modified to suit that in which it grows, it loses its virtue.)" Livy 38.17.13 , acknowledgments Laudator Temporis Acti
The separation of state and church must be complemented by the separation of state and science, that most recent, most aggressive, and most dogmatic religious institution.
ReplyDeletePaul Karl Feyerabend
Very good, Toma.
DeleteI have quoted this by the great Peterhouse historian Maurice Cowling a couple of times before but it deserves repeating:
Delete"Secularisation so far from involving liberation from religion, has involved merely liberation from Christianity and the establishment in its place of a modern religion whose advocates so much assume its truth that they do not understand that it is a religion to which they are committed."
Rationalism... is a secularized form of the belief in the power of the word of God.
DeletePaul Karl Feyerabend
GK Chesterton said belief in progress was a secularised belief in God. Or something like that.
DeleteExperts are often called in, not to provide factual information or dispassionate analysis for the purpose of decision-making by responsible officials, but to give political cover for decisions already made and based on other considerations entirely.
ReplyDeleteThomas Sowell
“Knowing that enough is enough, is enough.”
Lao Tzu, “Tae Te Ching”
I once had to teach a Sunday School class, kindergarten level, and I was talking about Heaven. A boy asked me how he would recognize God in Heaven. What a question! Only the Holy Spirit could answer it, and fortunately He did. I blurted out: “He will be the most absolutely beautiful thing you ever saw!” The kid said to me, “You’re right.” I was put in my place, and given a passing grade by the real teacher.
Peter Kreeft
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/05/01/dr-peter-kreeft-beauty-is-the-first-thing-we-notice-and-love/
Each generation is converted by the saint who contradicts it most.
G.K. Chesterton
Wonderful! Better than mine.
DeleteWhat is our liberty for if not to govern ourselves?
ReplyDeleteSteve Baker, the MP for Wycombe
“What is our liberty for if not to govern ourselves?Like all of you I have wrestled with my conscience about what to do.
DeleteI could tear this place down and bulldoze it into the river. These fools and knaves and cowards are voting on things they don’t even understand. We’ve been put in this place by people whose addiction to power without responsibility has led them to put the choice of No Brexit or this deal. I may yet resign the whip than be part of this.”
Steve Baker, the MP for WycombeIn the final meeting of ERG parliamentarians before the fateful third meaningful vote (MV3) on Theresa May’s deal in March 2019.Boris Johnson and Sir Iain Duncan Smith had just addressed the room, asking for MPs to vote for Theresa May’s deal but then Steve Baker stood up and delivered “a spellbinding speech” after which “there was a genuine standing ovation."
Later, he told The Critic:
“Was the path clear? No. It was a huge gamble but we knew it was a huge gamble. Dominic Cummings told us we were Remain’s ‘useful idiots’ and we knew we weren’t. We knew we needed a new Prime Minister and a new mandate but we just were not clear how we would achieve it. I had to watch David Davis, Boris Johnson – both of whom I’d resigned over Chequers with – Jacob and Dom Raab – some of my closest allies and friends fold and vote for the deal. It was awful. Just bringing it back I feel sick thinking about it.”
https://thecritic.co.uk/exclusive-steve-baker-resigns-as-erg-chair/
He was right and brave.
Delete