Well Said, Adam!

Adam Bosworth has held his blog posting titled Speaking Up in reserve since July, but he’s finally published it.

I fear now for my children growing up into a world where the leaders

turn their backs on the spirit of reason and inquiry. Where the new

cardinals of the church deny evolution not on any grounds of empirical

reason or evidence, but rather like children having a temper tantrum

because they want it not to be so. Where the leaders of this country

try to take Terry Shiavo’s husband to court not because of any

evidence, but because they are angry to have been proven wrong by

science. Where cowardly murderers kill innocent men, women, and

children and claim to do it in the name of a religion, meaning

something that no one can possibly argue with from a rational point of

view. Where the education board of Kansas makes the state a mockery by

demanding that irrationality be held to be as valid as science. Where

1.2 billion people consider it acceptable for some man with a vision to

utter a Fatwa ordering some person killed simply because he doesn’t

like what the other person chooses to believe in or even just

disapproves of his line of inquiry. Where political correctness means

that if some lines of inquiry are pursued, others feel free to harass

and abuse and even threaten the people trying to find out the facts.

Where people believe that they have the right to tell others what to

believe, what to wear, what to eat, what to say, and what to think.

Reason and Inquiry trumps Irrationality and Edicts. While

it’s been said before, it’s worth repeating, especially by someone in

my field with a well-rounded education (Adam was a history major).

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A side note: Adam didn’t publish the entry when he wrote it

three months ago because he “didn’t want to hurt Google”, his employer.

As he wrote in an earlier posting on his blog:

I find that most of what I want to post these days would rile a fair

number of people and then Google would get the blame even though these

are my personal opinions, so I chose to keep my thoughts to myself. The

last thing I want to do is hurt a company that has been very good to me

and fun to work at.

I

haven’t the time to discuss this subject in further detail, but it’s

one that I should cover at some point: can you truly be separate from

your employer on your blog? It’s a question that we touched upon at the

“Business of Blogging” workshop at the CASCON conference yesterday, and my short answer is “to varying degrees.”