Another interesting one from Johann Hari, in which he goes off on the "anti-science" types who reap the benefits of the Enlightenment, yet deny its intellectual underpinnings.
For too long, people have been allowed to piggy-back on the Enlightenment, enjoying its incredible fruits but jeering at it as “soulless” or fundamentally flawed. But how many people would cling to these irrationalist anti-science theories if they actually had to feel the consequences in their own blood and bone? I am prepared to pay for my belief that testing on higher primates is deeply morally wrong. Are the opponents of science prepared to pay for theirs?
The piece is problematic, due to his aforementioned hostility towards God, religion and faith. He does a good job, however, of going after the animal-rights quacks, the New-Age alernative cure-voodoo quacks, and other fanatics.
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