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Thursday 20 December 2018

Doctoring Data - Science has turned to darkness

Dr. Malcolm Kendrick
Dr. Malcolm Kendrick Blog


As readers of this blog know I was obliterated from Wikipedia recently. Many have expressed support and told me not to get down about it. To be perfectly frank, the only time I knew I was on Wikipedia was when someone told me I was going to be removed. So it hasn't caused great psychological trauma.

In fact my feelings about this are probably best expressed on a Roman tombstone. It has been translated in different ways, but my favourite version is the following:

I was not
I was
I am not
I care not

However, whilst my removal from Wiki is, in one way, completely irrelevant in the greater scheme of things. In another way it is hugely important. As Saladin said of Jerusalem, whilst he was battling with the Christians during the crusades. 'Jerusalem is nothing; Jerusalem is everything.'

My removal from Wikipedia is nothing. My removal from Wikipedia is everything. Not because it is me, but because of what it represents. No to beat about the bush, there is a war going on out there between scientific enlightenment, and the forces of darkness.

You think that is too dramatic? Well, this is what Richard Horton - editor of the Lancet for many years - has to say.

'The case against science is straightforward: much of the scientific literature, perhaps half, may simply be untrue...science has taken a turn towards darkness.' - Richard Horton
Science has taken a turn towards darkness... Of course science cannot really turn anywhere. It is not an entity. Science is simply made up of people. The scientific method itself, is simply an attempt to discover what is factually true, by being as objective as possible and removing human bias. It is, like everything humans do, imperfect. Bias is always there. 

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