When A New Science of Life was first published in June 1981, it received many favourable reviews and reactions, particularly in the Guardian and New Scientist. These positive responses infuriated the late Sir John Maddox, editor of the journal Nature. He published an editorial denouncing this book in September 1981, entitled ‘A Book for Burning?’. In this highly polemical attack he sought to excommunicate Rupert from the world of institutional science and to brand the hypothesis of morphic resonance as heresy.
(Tom: Whether or not Rupert’s hypothesis is proven correct or not is not the important takeaway from this story. The big issue is the refusal to accept a person’s right, nay, scientific responsibility, to search for hypotheses that would explain heretofore unexplained phenomena. The branding of him as a heretic proves that what is supposed to be science has degenerated (if it was ever higher) into a religious dogma rather than a search for truth.
This absurd behaviour at the pinnacle of academia is the end product of an education system that has deteriorated into an indoctrination system.
It also exemplifies the courage and integrity required to rise above the group agreement which plagues man’s thinking.)