McGrath on peer review, and a response

James McGrath at Exploring Our Matrix , and also in comment here . I have no general animus against peer review, and fields such as Global Warming I would tend to applaud the system of interactive checks by scientists. But, I fear, that just doesn’t work in evolutionary theory. There is no standard of science by which to measure a theory of evolution, for the simple reason that noone has a good one. You can adopt Darwin’s inadequate theory, and make it standard, and then conduct peer review on that basis, but the result is an illusion of certainty and of peer review rigor. In reality peer review seems to intimidate dissenters, and result in the frozen paradigm syndrome.