Is anyone aware of an explicit Mark Twain reference to Andrew D. White's
(1898) History of the Warfare between Science and Religion in Christendom?
I ask because someone threw down the gauntlet to my earlier comment that I
could probably find things in Twain to support various views on the vaccine
controversy, and this book, full of both scientific and historical
balderdash, is not infrequently cited as an answer to people who have
religious objections to some policy allegedly supported by current
science. This site
http://www.sciencepastor.com/contradictions/andrew-d-white.php is written
from a conservative Christian viewpoint but gives an idea of the book and
problems with relying on it at the current time. My spidey sense thinks
Twain might have been skeptical of it. It was very influential at the time.
Martha Sherwood
PS I have a doctorate in biology from Cornell, where they put Andrew D.
White on a pedestal.