Eminent Scientist Censored for Truth-telling

Posted on October 19, 2007

Fury that anybody would say publicly what every single scientific study of the subject has shown

“A Nobel prize-winning scientist who reportedly claimed Africans and Europeans had different levels of intelligence is no longer welcome to deliver a lecture at London’s Science Museum, the museum said Wednesday.

James Watson, who won the Nobel Prize for co-discovering DNA, drew widespread outrage when he told The Sunday Times that Africans and Europeans did not share the same brain power.

The newspaper quoted the 79-year-old American geneticist as saying he was “inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa” because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really.”

The comments drew condemnation from British lawmakers, scientists, and equality campaigners.

Watson, who serves as chancellor of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York, was due to speak Friday at a sold-out event at the Science Museum, but on Wednesday night the institution said Watson’s comments had gone too far and the lecture had been canceled

Source

Cautionary note: People have a tendency to see statements about groups as applying to all members of that group. That is rarely so and is certainly not true in this instance. There is no inconsistency in saying that blacks as a whole are less intelligent while also acknowledging that some individual blacks are very intelligent. What is true of most need not be true of all.

Scientists have spent decades looking for holes in the evidence Watson was referring to but all the proposed “holes” have been shown not to be so. There is NO argument against his conclusions that has not been meticulously examined by skeptics already. And all objections have been shown not to hold up. There is an introduction to the studies concerned here

Some commentators have mentioned that old Marxist propagandist, Stephen Jay Gould, as refuting what Watson said. Here is just one comment pointing out what a klutz Gould was. And for an exhaustive scientific refutation of Gould by an expert in the field, see here. Gould’s distortions of the facts really are quite breathtaking…

Watson got such a lot of abuse over his comments that he has now denied that he made them. The newspaper that originally reported the comments stands by its story, however.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

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6 Responses to “Eminent Scientist Censored for Truth-telling”

Otter on October 19th, 2007 9:23 am

thinking meat… is that you, meatbrain? Did you give up
on trying to prove the death tolls of the Iraq war are not
what they really are? Moved on to something requiring the use
of less of your intellect?

The Left really IS stupid.
JonJayRay on October 19th, 2007 9:30 am

Unthinking Meat is a perfect example of a Leftist: Simple abuse is all he is capable of.
He offers not one shred of facts, evidence or rational argument.
JonJayRay on October 19th, 2007 9:45 am

I wonder how many publications on psychometric questions the meathead has in the academic journals?

I have around 200
Jay on October 19th, 2007 12:00 pm

Meatbrain is famous for smearing without substance or evidence. He reads what he wants things to say and when confronted he dances in circles. I’ve found him a complete waste of time. I don’t even bother debating him, because he isn’t interested in that. He has his point of view and it is inflexible.
Tim on October 19th, 2007 4:29 pm

I’m always suspicious of these studies… are they measuring intellegence, or are they measuring education? When we have a definite lacking in public education, can we really trust these studies at face value?
kerwin on October 20th, 2007 1:44 am

I object to the claim that genetics is the cause since there are too many factors involved in this kind of study. In the U.S. Blacks are poorer and so more likely to be exposed to lead which has the effect of diminishing intelligence. That is just one factor. Another factor is that the brain tends to develop along the lines it is taught and Blacks may see sports and entertainment as an area that they are more likely to advance in so their brains become more specialized in those areas that get more exercise.