Scientists have an obligation to “tell the truth they know,” the Episcopal Church’s presiding bishop recently told a forum at MIT in Cambridge, and they should keep in mind the average person’s unasked question about their research: “What difference does that make for me?”
Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori cited controversial areas of current research””bio-fuel crops, stem cell science, women’s cancer screening””with human and environmental interconnections and consequences.
“The very passion that is expressed in these discussions is an indication of the greater need for the scientific community’s engagement with the larger society. None of us can hide behind the technical work and leave the ethical work to other experts,” she said.
[i]Scientists have an obligation to “tell the truth they know,â€[/i]
huh? I thought they had an obligation to tell (and seek) the truth. period.
If they only tell the truth ‘they know’, what makes them any different from reappraising clergy — oh, yeah, consider the source. Never mind.
And that, boys and girls, is how we got to where we are with ‘Climategate’.
Jim Elliott
Can there be a truth that one doesn’t know? (I am suggesting that the ” . . .they know” phrase is pleonastic and not essential to the meaning of the Bishop’s statement).