Supreme Example of Hedging
In one of my lectures yesterday, i was introduced to an interesting term…"Hedging". It’s a device used by many academic writers when making claims. E.g. "The discrepancy in the results could be due to incorrect calibration of the instruments". As you can see, the writer does this to distance him/herself from his/her claims. Why? Because they are never 100% sure.
Sometimes other words are used like suggest, appear to, seem to, tend to etc. Sort of like a safety net so nobody gets a shot at them just in case they are proven wrong.
As I pondered on this, I received this link to a video clip which I think is the ultimate, supreme example of hedging. You may or may not be familiar with the debates going on regarding the ‘Creation vs. Evolution’ issue. I am, of course, for creation and intelligent design. Contrary to popular belief, we ‘creationists’ have evidence to support creationism. Check out www.drdino.com.
To see the supreme example of hedging, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTdhYAtaOjs. A lot of people speak with such confidence concerning Evolution. But then why do they ‘hedge’ everything they say?
SIr Arthur Keith, in the Foreword to the 100th edition of Origin of Species wrote:
"Evolution is unproved and unprovable. We believe it only because the only alternative is special creation, and that is unthinkable."
