Last fall Republican members of a House subcommittee invited established "skeptics" to testify on ozone depletion, global warming and dioxin.
But Democrat George Brown of California complained that, by calling skeptics to appear as witnesses next to scientists holding more conventional views, too much credibility was afforded the skeptics. The perception was created, Brown claimed, that no reliable process exists to resolve scientific differences of opinion.
Nature replied:
The voices of skeptics may grow tiresome, but the mainstream is in trouble if it cannot win a public debate with them.Rep. Brown may be confusing Congress with the Inquisition — that "august" body that banished Galileo for having the heretical belief that the earth revolved around the sun, instead of vice-versa.
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