“Cancel Culture and DEI have caused many to keep their mouths shut. “
The book Biblical Creationism describes itself thusly:
Critics of the doctrine of creation often attempt to marginalize the great truths of God’s creative acts. The reality, however, is that creation is mentioned in each of the Bible’s 66 books. This is one of the great ignored truths of the modern Church.
Far from being a trivial issue, or one that can be interpreted many different ways, God’s record of creation displays a marvelous and clear consistency throughout. From the symphony of the creation week in Genesis, to the promise of a new heaven and a new earth in Revelation, the Bible speaks of a recent, six-day creation of the universe.
A respected scholar, the late Dr. Henry M. Morris spent over six decades studying God’s Word, and his commentaries enriched the faith of many. In this remarkable book, Dr. Morris examines both the famous creation account in Genesis, as well as lesser-known references, such as Ezra and Colossians. Biblical Creationism is a devastating response to the Bible’s critics.
I confess that although I haven’t read this book, I am confident it won’t convince me that Genesis is the literal truth and that the universe was created in six days. I know enough about the topic to know this book would be a waste of my time, and my time is precious.
Similarly, the book The War on Science describes itself thusly:
An unparalleled group of prominent scholars from wide-ranging disciplines detail ongoing efforts to impose ideological restrictions on science and scholarship throughout western society.
From assaults on merit-based hiring to the policing of language and replacing well-established, disciplinary scholarship by ideological mantras, current science and scholarship is under threat throughout western institutions. As this group of prominent scholars ranging across many different disciplines and political leanings detail, the very future of free inquiry and scientific progress is at risk. Many who have spoken up against this threat have lost their positions, and a climate of fear has arisen that strikes at the heart of modern education and research. Banding together to finally speak out, this brave and unprecedented group of scholars issues a clarion call for change.
Topics include: Free speech, victimhood, ideology, corruption of academic disciplines, cancel culture, DEI, gender, and race, and what we can do.
“Higher education isn’t what it used to be. Cancel Culture and DEI have caused many to keep their mouths shut. Not so the authors of this book. This collection of essays tells of threats to open inquiry, free speech, and the scientific process itself. A much-needed book.”
—Sabine Hossenfelder, Physicist and Author of Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions
In my previous discussion of The War on Science, I confessed I had not read it for the same reason I had not read Biblical Creationism, my time is precious. I was familiar with and unimpressed by many of the authors, which included formerly respected skeptics and social media grievance-mongers such as Gad Saad and Jordan Peterson. I’d also read the table of contents, as well as reviews from trusted sources. In his review Not All Wars Are What They Seem: The False Promise of “The War on Science” Dr. Joshua Weitz wrote:
Making my way through each essay, I began to wonder whether the title was a hidden signal that this book was actually part of the war, with essayists carefully chosen to wage a battle against science, scientists, and institutions in need of a comeuppance so that higher education and science can get back to the classics (aka the good old days).
In her review, How the New Atheists Joined the MAHA War on Science, Sarah Jones wrote:
There are nearly 40 chapters in The War on Science, all pockmarked by omissions, misrepresentations, and, sometimes, obvious lies. Each section of the anthology addresses a different facet of the woke threat to reason, but a few common obsessions emerge: Genitals and what people do with them, Israel, DEI, and various professional insults — it’s all here, boomer Facebook on every page.
Mostly, I knew what MAGA/MAHA was doing to science, which was astonishingly absent from the book. Laughably, the authors claim they didn’t miss the threat of Trump 2.0, rather his danger simply revealed itself “too late for our book“. We at SBM recognized the threat in hundreds of articles here, dating back many years before I came along. Although the risk of of Trump, Kennedy, and their ilk was out there for everyone to see, the authors of The War on Science acted as if what’s happening now was a totally unpredictable freak of nature.
“Perhaps the author might READ the book before he starts beefing about it and telling other people that they shouldn’t read it.”
The fact that I didn’t waste my time reading the book before advising others not to waste their time reading the book generated emotional responses from several of its contributors. Professor Jerry Coyne, for example, didn’t defend the book or address the objections to it, but rather scolded me in the comments of my SBM article saying:
Perhaps the author might READ the book before he starts beefing about it and telling other people that they shouldn’t read it. He might learn something, or at least get material to sharpen his arguments.
Perhaps Professor Coyne is right. Maybe I am missing out on a truly impressive work scholarship that will upend my superficial understanding of the threats to science in 2026. So, here’s my question for the authors of The War on Science– why should I, or anyone else, read it?
As a doctor, I know the first step is to make the right diagnosis, and to convince me their book is worth my time, the authors must first convince me they correctly identified the forces currently waging the war on science, which we all agree is being fought. I won’t be persuaded by scattered examples of wokeness gone amok. Those of us who broadly agreed with the efforts to make STEM more inclusive wouldn’t argue that its implementation was flawless. Rather, the authors need to make the affirmative case that trans people, “cancel culture”, and DEI were existential threats to science, while MAGA/MAHA wasn’t dangerous enough to warrant even a single chapter. I’d love to see them do that.
Fortunately, nearly a year after the publication of The War on Science we have some real-world data, which scientists should value above all else. It sure seems to me that the authors of The War on Science won their war and should take a well-earned victory lap. They’ll never again have to write a dreaded DEI statement or feel threatened by an 18-year-old with pronouns in their bio. Thanks to their efforts, trans people are literally on the run and research into topics our government deems “DEI” is verboten. This is exactly what they wanted, and if their theory of the case is right, we should be entering a golden era of open scientific research and discovery.
So, let’s see them make the case that science is flourishing today, having been unleashed from wokeism’s punishing shackles. If they are able to take into account everything MAGA/MAHA has done since gaining power and convince me that science is better off for it, I’ll read their book and recommend it to everyone I know.
Until then, I’ll view it as several rungs below Biblical Creationism. At least that book didn’t provide cover and ammunition to the soldiers actually waging the war on science today.