ÒWe take the
side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs É in spite of
the tolerance of the scientific community
for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to
materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions somehow
compel us to accept a material explanation
of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to
create an apparatus of
investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how
counterintuitive, no matter how mystifying
to the uninitiated. Moreover, that
materialism is absolute, for
we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.Ó
Richard
Lewontin, NY
Review of Books
(9 Jan 97)