Sir John Bull----

John Derbyshire ticks off his readers by dissing Expelled. To explain, he extols the virtues of the scientific method, that crowning achievement of Western Civilization. Take it away, Derb. We don't want to miss a single word.

In any case, I am not reviewing the movie. What I am doing is, heaping
well-justified abuse on the heads of people who, for "sentimental qualms" and
from a position of ignorance, trash scientific method, the greatest achievement
of our civilization.
And uniquely of our civilization. A mature scientific
theory is as much a glory of our civilization as is a cathedral or a university;
and it is uniquely of ours. Other civilizations had temples, universities,
systems of government, literature, philosophy; but only we of the West came up
with scientific method, and the whole world owes the innumerable fruits of that
method to us.
I am a huge fan of Western civilization. Thus, when
people — well-educated people, who ought to set an example for the
general — sneer at and spit on these majestic creations of the human
intellect, I get mad. They are taking sides with barbarism. They ought to be
ashamed of themselves.

Say, Derb, didn't an Arab, Ibn al-Haytham, invent the scientific method?

And he's the smart one.