Folk science, an essential concept

I have been reading the Quintessence of Dust blog for some time, but, apparently, not enough. That blog is essential reading for any Christian who takes science seriously, and wants to think about origins, even if she may not agree with Stephen Matheson, the author. Matheson is careful, thorough, and respectful of viewpoints that are not his own.

The reason I said "not enough" above is that I have recently come upon a post from 2007, in which Matheson discusses what he calls "folk science," which is, more or less, science used to defend a pre-existing view. As Matheson points out in a recent post, much of the defense of Intelligent Design is actually folk science, unfortunately. The same is true of much of the defense of Young-Earth Creationism.

Thanks for reading. Read Quintessence of Dust.