TUESDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2014

A recent media kerfuffle strikes me as an appropriate post for The Old New Way (particularly since at our next meeting we will be addressing the impact of the Scientific Revolution on our world).

So… in case you missed it.

A few weeks ago an ESPN baseball writer, Keith Law, found himself defending evolution against some silly talk spouted by another ESPN contributor, Curt Schilling.

Law pointed out, for example, that homo sapiens have not descended from any monkeys or apes now living (though we share a common ancestor).

In response, well, what did you think would happen in contemporary America? His Twitter account was promptly suspended by ESPN. Apparently, defending science is still a dicey career move in some corners.

When ESPN reinstated Law’s account a week later, his first Tweet was a beauty:

“Eppur si muove.”

This is, according to legend, what Galileo Galilei muttered when he was sentenced to house arrest (for arguing that, based on the evidence, the Earth moves around the sun — and not vice versa).

“And yet it moves,” Galileo said, quietly.

A novel concept: humans don’t get to dictate to nature because we are part of it. Nature happens, whether we like it or not.

Click here for an article covering the great ESPN Twitter controversy of November, 2014.