Rancid

After reading a few threads over at Theology Web (can I have some aspirin please?) - I’ve noticed several characters who, for whatever reason, claim that a scientist can not write a good paper, book, article, etc whose subject is not what their degree pertains to. They dismiss the efforts out of hand as bad science without actually refuting anything in the article. My thoughts are, "Who cares, as long as the person can back up their claim with good reasoning, methods and research?" I realize that people tend to stick to their field (more or less) when they write articles because that is what they are interested in.


What are some of your thoughts on this?

pariah

why would a biologist write a book, paper, or article on physics?

likely it won't be the same "quality" level as something related to their degree, but I fail to see why it has to be bad.

Doubting Didymus

Well, I'd say that you almost certainly need a relevant qualification to write a proper scientific paper (that is, actually doing the research and reporting on your findings in a peer-reveiwed journal). But books and articles? Any schmoe can do those if they have enough knowlege. Old Dead Carl Sagan didn't have degrees in every damn field in the entire scientific enterprise, but that doesn't (didn't) stop him writing about them.

catalyst

Does this mean that most of those theologians should stop writing about science?

Rancid

Theologians can write about science as long as they stick to science in science papers and theology in theology papers. The two don't mix very well and could put somebody's eye out.