RE: Impact no. 293

Arthur V. Chadwick (chadwicka@swac.edu)
Fri, 07 Nov 1997 17:58:38 -0800

At 12:07 PM 11/7/97 -0600, Janet wrote:
>From the post by James Hoffman, looking at the ICR Statement
>
>>Impact #293 included the following comment:
>>
>> "For example, over 20 scientific societies in the United States
>>have policies in their bylaws denying acceptance of journal articles
>>from
>>creationists." (p. ii)
>>
>>Does anyone know what societies make up this list of 20?
>>
>I think that is an interesting question - perhaps it is just my experience,
>but it seems that many times statements about something being prohibited or
>in bylaws or whatever get made without being totally accurate, but are then
>repeated with the next "user" assuming the original statement was correct.
>In a sense its a question of academic "urban myths". If there is a list of
>the 20 societies, there are reasonable odds that someone on this list is a
>member of at least one of them who could perhaps check for their particular
>society. Perhaps I'm also curious that there would be 20 or more different
>scientific socities that publish journals and have enough dealings with
>evolution/creation questions to bother putting something in their bylaws.
>I would be very surprised if ASM, International (that's for materials
>scientist and metallurgists) would have such a statement because it isn't
>germane to their interests. I know all this sounds distrustful, and it
>probably is - but I know from experience that even with the best of
>intentions, it is a good idea to check on other people's (or for that
>matter my own) statistics.
>

I share your skepticism and your curiosity. How could any "Scientific"
society deliberately limit its purview so narrowly.
Art
http://chadwicka.swau.edu