Tuesday, February 12, 2008

On hoaxes and creationism journals

Very recently, the Answers in Genesis (AiG) organisation has launched its own 'peer-reviewed' Young Earth creationism research journal -- the Answers Research Journal. AiG are the people behind the Creation Museum in Kentucky. They seek to rebut the standard theory of evolution and promote the biblical account of the creation of life on earth as literal scientific truth. Their new journal hopes to be a home for creationism friendly research that can't get published elsewhere.

My prediction: within the year, the Answers Research Journal will fall for a Sokal Affair style hoax.

The Sokal Affair was a hoax perpetrated on a postmodern cultural studies journal called Social Text by the physicist Alan Sokal. Sokal said that he wanted to see if the journal would "publish an article liberally salted with nonsense if (a) it sounded good and (b) it flattered the editors' ideological preconceptions." He wrote a hilariously silly paper called "Transgressing the Boundaries: Towards a Transformative Hermeneutics of Quantum Gravity" full of the most amazing nonsense, submitted it, and they published it. (If you're familiar with postmodernist writing and understand just a couple of the basic ideas of Einsteinian physics, you'll find the article very funny.)

Surely someone else will have the same idea for hoaxing the Answers journal. A hoax of this type wouldn't be an immature game, it would serve to test the intellectual standards of a journal trying to sell itself as being a serious peer-reviewed science journal. It will be interesting to see whether there are any lines of argument in favour of creationism that the folks at Answers won't endorse.

8 comments:

Lee said...

Tempting. So tempting...

Mark said...

Your friend J Cosmo is a creationism buff isn't he Lee? ;-)

Anonymous said...

Creationism is the most mystifying of all religious beliefs in my mind. How can you see facts with your own eyes and still deny it because you are told to? It reminds me of the Star Trek episode where Jean Luc is tortured into believing he sees more lights than there actually are.

Me

Mark said...

Yes, that episode of Trek is amazing, one of my favourites.

The thing about creationism though is that although it's pushes by various religions, it's also the common sense, intuitive answer to the question of why life on earth is the way it is... that it was all created as is is the easier model to understand if you're unaware of, or don't understand, all the evidence for evolution. So I think it is forgivable if you've not had the opportunity to learn about evolution...but the folks at AiG certainly have had the opportunity.

Lee said...

Cosmo, a creationist? No, you misunderstand him. He favours procreation, a totally different thing to being pro creation.

Mark said...

Lol @Lee

Ms.PhD said...

Did you see the article in the Chronicle about how the journal Proteomics published something in favor of the mighty creator?

My favorite part of the article is all the quotes from people saying how shocked they were at this blatant failure of peer review.

Like it's a system that normally works perfectly? Hahahahaa.

Mark said...

Just looked it up now Ms.PhD...very interesting. It looks like they've retracted the paper now, not for the line about 'the mighty creator', but because of plagiarism.

I'm not sure their paper will be religious enough to get into Answers though. At Answers there should be at least one direct quote from the bible per paragraph.