Intelligent Design being treated as science by Barnes and Noble

[SynapticDancer]

I was wandering through the aisles of my colleges Barnes and Noble branch, and I spied something peculiar.

If you look closely (not the greatest pic, taken with phone, I really need a digital camera!) you will see Michael Behe's Book, The Edge of Evolution, in the Science section. WTF?

 

[Walter Wayne]

I was wandering through the aisles of my colleges Barnes and Noble branch, and I spied something peculiar.

[qimg]http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p117/lmb2150/BeheBookOnScienceShelf.jpg[/qimg]

If you look closely (not the greatest pic, taken with phone, I really need a digital camera!) you will see Michael Behe's Book, The Edge of Evolution, in the Science section. WTF?

It has the word evolution in it. The only way it could be more scientific would be if he threw the word quantum in there as well.

I've given up on stores as a method of classifying book subject matter.

Walt

 

[SynapticDancer]

It has the word evolution in it. The only way it could be more scientific would be if he threw the word quantum in there as well.

The physics of the quantum biology at the edge evolution: The science and chemistry of irreducible complexity

 

[tsg]

Personally, I never put much stock in what a particular bookstore chain considers science.

Like libraries, it helps if you think of what section a book appears in as a statement of intent by the author and not an opinion on whether or not he achieved it.

 

[m_huber]

I've heard this complaint before. Not from scientists/atheists, mind you, but from Christians who are upset at what B&N puts in the religion section (mainly Da Vinci crap). Humorous to see that both sides don't like the store's classification processes.

 

[technoextreme]

I was wandering through the aisles of my colleges Barnes and Noble branch, and I spied something peculiar.

[qimg]http://i126.photobucket.com/albums/p117/lmb2150/BeheBookOnScienceShelf.jpg[/qimg]

If you look closely (not the greatest pic, taken with phone, I really need a digital camera!) you will see Michael Behe's Book, The Edge of Evolution, in the Science section. WTF?

They don't care about the information. Whatever the category is on the back is where it is sent.

 

[linusrichard]

I think this is fine, when you consider the point of dividing up a bookstore into sections. The point is to allow people to more quickly find the books they're looking for. Personally, I believe firmly that ID is a species of creationism, a religious belief, and in no way, shape, or form, science or scientific. However, if I were going to look for The Edge of Evolution in a bookstore, I would expect it to be in the Science section. If B&N put it in the "correct" section (Religion? Fiction? Humor? True Crime?), it would take me longer to find it than if it were in the Science section. Thus, the purpose is best served by putting it where people expect to find it. Consider also the possibility that most people who are looking for this book do consider it to be science. Again, they're wrong, but if the point is to make it easy for people to find books, then it makes sense.

 

[Beerina]

I've heard this complaint before. Not from scientists/atheists, mind you, but from Christians who are upset at what B&N puts in the religion section (mainly Da Vinci crap). Humorous to see that both sides don't like the store's classification processes.

What's good for the goose...

 

[Achán hiNidráne]

Heh... I often peruse the local Half Priced Books and I once found a copy of Behe's "Darwin's Black Box." in the "Science Fiction & Fantasy" section. I put it right back where I found it.

 

[SynapticDancer]

I think this is fine, when you consider the point of dividing up a bookstore into sections. The point is to allow people to more quickly find the books they're looking for. Personally, I believe firmly that ID is a species of creationism, a religious belief, and in no way, shape, or form, science or scientific. However, if I were going to look for The Edge of Evolution in a bookstore, I would expect it to be in the Science section. If B&N put it in the "correct" section (Religion? Fiction? Humor? True Crime?), it would take me longer to find it than if it were in the Science section. Thus, the purpose is best served by putting it where people expect to find it. Consider also the possibility that most people who are looking for this book do consider it to be science. Again, they're wrong, but if the point is to make it easy for people to find books, then it makes sense.

Very good point, when you think of it solely in terms of marketing and not philosophically.

 

[Wowbagger]

I think bookstores should have a separate section, next to the Science section, called "Pseudo-Science". It might dwarf the actual science section, but at least people will know what they are buying.

 

[Tanstaafl]

While I'm sure there's little actual science in that book, Behe actually is a scientist anyway.

At least he used to be. He's still paid as one, but he doesn't seem to actually do any science any more.

 

[Cello Man]

For what it's worth...

Before I got this office job, I worked at Barnes & Noble for over 3 years. One co-worker had the occasional habit of shelving a Bible or two in the Fiction section, under "G" for God.

 

[korenyx]

Borders has Behe in the science section but other ID books are in the Church section.

I used to have a co-worker who would put the Dark Side of Christian History pages out and I would have to turn it back around.

 

[Tricky]

Intelligent design is in fact, a critique of science, evolution specifically. I would expect to see Dawkins' "The God Delusion" in the religion section. It is a critique of religion.

 

[Big Les]

A colleague at work recently wrote a serious history book, and at a local bookshop I saw it squeezed between something on the "real" holy grail and another on the conspiracy of the Templars. We chuckled.

 

[T'ai Chi]

They also put MMA sportfighting stuff in the martial arts section.

 

[Gazpacho]

A bad book about science is still a book about science. Similarly, books on revised chronology are stocked in the history section.

It's a free country, including the bookstores.

 

[tsg]

Intelligent design is in fact, a critique of science, evolution specifically.

I would agree with you except for the fact that ID's complaints about evolution a) are founded entirely in religion and b) have very little to do with what evolution actually says.

ID is no more a critique of evolution than a review of Strange Brew is a critique of Hamlet.