The Mail

Paige Williams’s Profile of the controversial paleoanthropologist Lee Berger reveals the discrepancies between the claims that Berger makes about his discoveries and his actual accomplishments (“Digging for Glory,” June 27th). Numerous scientists have questioned Berger’s assertion that the fossils he found in the Rising Star cave system, in South Africa, displayed “ritualized behaviors directed toward the dead”—a claim that, if true, would mean Homo sapiens is not the only species with funerary practices. Science is supposed to provide a measure of certainty, but, increasingly, we are blurring the distinction between speculation, supported hypothesis, and well-proven theory. As the standards of scientific certainty decline, the public loses faith in scientific claims, and in scientists. As a result, even established science, such as climate change or Darwinian evolution, which we know to be beyond debate, is now being questioned, especially when there are political, economic, or cultural implications.