An idol with feet of clay.
I have read several books by John Gribbin on cosmology and quantum theory. They seemed to be excellent books.
Recently I discovered that he is the coauthor of The Jupiter Effect, a book published in the late seventies or early eighties. That book described the coming alignment (in about 1984, I think) of most of the planets on one side of the sun.
It predicted serious cataclysms due to the combined gravitational effect o f the aligned planets on the sun. The book was utter nonsense and denounced by mainstream science. When the book was no longer selling, the authors recanted, giving various excuses for what they had done, in hope of regaining their reputation in the scientific community.
To me, they are the worst type of charlatan. They made up lies in order to make a buck and they traded on their valid scientific credentials to get it published and sold. It is like a teacher lying to his students in order to con them out of money.
It makes me wonder how valid his other books are.
Individuals in a society, evolution
A fully functional society where everyone would obey preset rules would not evolve. The variety, the balance between order and chaos functions as the random mutation element in evolution theory. Most of the defect elements would not be preserved but those who would are worth it. From this point of view criticism seems unnessesary but only critisism against the evolving society.
A deliberate scam is not a mistake.
Simonm: An honest mistake is not something to get upset about. A deliberate scam is more serious.
Perhaps Gribbin should be forgiven, but how can you trust somebody who sells his integrity? He knew the Jupiter effect was nonsense, but presented it as valid science.
Whenever he expresses an opinion in a book, how can you be sure he is being honest instead of saying what he thinks will make his book sell better? When he claims that some experiment supports his ideas, how can you be sure the experiment was performed as he described it?
It is tuff enough deciding when an honest author is misinterpreting some experiment or theory.
I do not want to go to the trouble of trying to verify everything I read in a book on the frontiers of science. I want to be able to trust the author not to deliberatly misrepresent anything.