MODERN ERRORS #3: The Decline of Debate
Pretty scary stuff don't you suppose? Scientists are putting up posters announcing that the scientific debate is over. What could possibly be more unscientific than making such a claim? And the 'climate change' controversy is not the only arena of ideas where otherwise rational people demand an end to debate so we can 'move on'. Distribution of wealth, homosexual marriage, Sharia Law, abortion, death penalty, marijuana, and illegal immigrants all have their vociferous advocates, mostly from the political left, who actively try to suppress real debate on these opinion laden issues. How did a nation that once prided itself on a robust life of ideas expressed in the market-place devolve into a Tower of Babel? Each semester when treating ethical and moral arguments in my Critical Thinking class there arises a perennial chorus of students who chant ‘Well…who’s to say what’s right and wrong.” ...