On Whether to Respond to Critics

By Chris Mooney
Sep 28, 2009 2:50 PMMay 17, 2019 10:58 PM

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While I have been busy getting married, on honeymoon, and trying to get settled in Boston, a great many things have been said about Unscientific America and about myself and Sheril. Many have been false, unfair, or worse. Or as Josh Rosenau put it: "Mooney and Kirshenbaum were personally maligned, and their book misrepresented to a degree that raises questions about whether critics actually read the book."

Sadly, I must agree with this assessment.

During this time, I have been logistically hampered in my ability to reply to such things, but also limited in my desire to do so. After all, there are many reasons to just let stuff go, no matter how unfair or ridiculous. It takes a lot of time to refute errors and misrepresentations, and there's relatively little chance minds will be changed even when you do so.

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