The Only Trouble With Science, Is Science Itself

For this weeks text response, I read the article "Trouble Ahead for Science", by Doctor Kenneth Miller. Right off the bat this articles tone comes across plain and clear; antagonistic, harsh, and slightly sarcastic. Being someone who, in fact, does believe in intelligent design by an omniscient Creator, this article definitely was meant to demean those who believe as I do. Dr. Miller's opening words "American science is in trouble" was an outright insult. The tone of this article reveals that Dr. Miller's intended audience are those who have similar views as himself. This is because it is so belligerent towards intelligent design, that anyone who believes that way, such as myself, would be strongly offended, and likely to stop after the opening sentence.

But, all feelings aside, the author did create quite an effective article, even though an extreme bias can be seen. however, the extreme bias shown by Dr. Miller in his article, seemed to be a little counter-effective. This is because he seemed to show no consideration for the opposition and stated everything so "matter-of-fact."If the reader of the article were of the same viewpoint as the author, or even neutral, it would be very persuasive. The main focus of the article is on the movie "Expelled", and Dr. Miller attempts to counter many of the ideas in the movie. However, having seen the movie, it seemed like a calculated choice to pick on it. Although the movie does revolve around intelligent design, it was done in a somewhat sarcastic and taunting way itself.

In the end, the article was done very well in a rhetorical sense; making relatively good counterarguments, using effective tones, and presenting adequate amounts of documented data. However, the article was written in such a negative manner, that I had a very difficult time reading it, and as you can see, it evoked many defensive feelings. Therefore, this article was a complete failure to someone like me, because it was too aggressive and attacking. If the author would get rid of some insults and decrease the resentful tone of the article, I would be much more likely to respond positively.