Posted by:
concolor1
at Sat Aug 1 11:03:09 2009 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by concolor1 ]
"That's just the way things go."
Readers of internet forums consist of all manner of individuals across the educational spectrum, and I think it is unrealistic to put some material out there and not expect it to be challenged or that there won't be a bit of brouha . . .
And, as I used to say in the writing classes I taught, "I'm only rejecting the writing not the writer." Those who persisted--in spite of the hurt, and yes, criticism hurts--were the ones who made progress. Those who retreated to an injured, victim posture rarely learned anything . . .
Quite simply, there are forces at work in our culture--and every culture--that work against progress and the dissemination of information. Nobody here is doubting the hybrids you produced; indeed "hybrid vigor" is a well-known and documented phenomenon . . .
The conflict arises in the challenge to evolution--and the study of herps includes, in small part, the study of evolution . . . Why, for example, is there so much similarity between the colubrids of Asia and those of the New World? Continental "drift" offers many a much more appealing explanation than stories of a six thousand year "history of the world"?
And progress and new ideas are often met with ill-informed resistance . . . Here's an incredible article I just read on the subject of Edward Jenner and his development of the smallpox vaccine (which itself, is evidence of evolution because of the genetic similarities between the smallpox and cowpox viruses).
www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/127/8_Part_1/635
Yet, despite Jenner's success, and the obvious "victory for humanity" that vaccination represented, there were those who opposed it . . .
At the end of 1796, Jenner sent an article to the Royal Society describing 13 persons who had previously had cowpox in whom variolation had induced no reaction. It also described the experiment with James Phipps. However, Sir Joseph Banks, the President of the Royal Society, and Sir Everard Home rejected the manuscript for publication in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society. The Council of the Royal Society repulsed Jenner because he was "in variance with established knowledge" and "incredible." Jenner was further warned: "He had better not promulgate such a wild idea if he valued his reputation"
And even today, there are groups who oppose, on religious grounds, the practice of vaccination . . . I do not know if their opposition is rooted in the belief that humans "Should not interfere with God's Will," or is grounded elsewhere . . .
I only know that they are wrong.
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As a Dear Lady Friend of Mine Said, - concolor1, Sat Aug 1 11:03:09 2009