Tom Bethell, author of The Politically Incorrect Guide to Science, offers his reason for reading Jacques “Chance alone is at the source ofevery innovation” Monod:
Some of the most useful books are written by people we don’t agree with. Francis Crick is another. After the double helix and his Nobel Prize in 1962, his position was impregnable and he could say whatever he liked without fear of losing grants. His Of Molecules and Men (lectures at the University of Washington in 1966), and his later Life Itself, are valuable for the forthright way he expresses views we would widely reject. He’s a fearless materialist, but of course ended up positing that life originated somewhere in outer space.Dawkins has similar merits. He writes well and I particularly admire him for rejecting the Muddled Middle position of Francis Collins, Kenneth Miller et al. Appeasers, he calls them. Dawkins one could presumably have an argument with. Kenneth Miller? I am not so sure.
Thoughts? Authors you think are wrong but readable?
Is Kenneth Miller wrong and unreadable?