ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the existence of a dispute between experts as a defining characteristic of technical controversies. Scientific disputes that seem weird in retrospect apparently were taken quite seriously in their time. In any case, the prayer controversy illustrates a number of features that are observable in contemporary disputes between experts. Usually, experts' interpretations of ambiguous data are tied to their positions on the technology or issue in controversy, or on correlated ideological stances or social alignments. A common way to deal with data that are inconsistent with one's own position is to deny their scientific validity. The tactic of rejecting data may at times be entirely justified. The chapter demonstrates how experts enter into technical controversy using examples from Dynamics of Technical Controversy, which give a picture that is not much changed today. Most experts agreed that ionizing radiation increases the incidence of leukemia and thyroid cancer in an exposed population.
