First, I’m grateful for all the support I’ve gotten for the Darwin’s Doubt project. It’s not my sole focus, but I will continue to work on it. Really, I”m amazingly grateful that people I have long respected in the scientific community have acknowledged my work on this.
Now, I need to make sure that there’s no confusion. I’m not a practicing scientist (something else that Meyer and I have in common). I don’t do lab or field work in any hard sciences. I have in the past, but not now.
I am doing some projects at work that may be published in peer-reviewed journals, but it’s not related to hard science (bio, chem, phsyics).
I have published some material in the past as well. I did some research for the European Space Agency and was published in one of their innovations documents. I’ve also been published in a philosophy journal edited by a friend of a friend (again, just like Meyer, this is beginning to frighten me).
I have taught science for many years. I’ve studied it diligently for over three decades. In college I participated in field research (geology and paleontology) and lab research (mass spectrometer in a vacuum). These weren’t just make busy labs, but actual research labs in college. And I earned a degree in Earth science… and if my college had minors, I would have had enough hours for a minor in biology and only lacked two classes for a minor in physics.
I think of myself as a scientist because of the things I have done and my love of science. I make a special effort to promote science and scientific thinking at all times.
A lot of people on the blogosphere have seen my “about” page and taken it to mean (I think) I’m a practicing scientist in a relevant field. It wasn’t my intention to deceive anyone about my qualifications. Honestly, they are about the same as Meyer and he wrote the book I’m fisking.
I also don’t want this to be about the person. It should be about the quality of the argument. I’ve stated Meyer’s qualifications in some of my posts, but specifically to mention that someone with that level of education should know better, because I have the same level of education in the same field and I know better.
I am sorry if I misled anyone. I do hope that you will all stick around (and visit the other blogs on skepticink).
Thanks
