My main point in my original essay was not that science has not been contaminated by taste, prejudices, and motivations. Of course it has been. My main point was that when judging a scientific theory, when debating its alternatives, when deciding which scientific interpretation is better, when demolishing bad theories, motivation is not a scientific…

First, the question—as it reads—carries a misconception about the foundations of science. It invokes “motivation,” but motivation is neither a scientific criterion nor a scientific argument. The motivation of a scientist in pursuing a scientific discovery or proposing or refuting a theory tells us nothing about the scientific validity of the scientist’s ideas. Motivation is…