Science and "sociopolitical victories"

I came across Stephen Jay Gould's site--about a week ago, after googling allusions from a comment about how various American founders weren't Christians (not that I had ever made that assertion, but . . .). I only knew Gould from his writings about Evolution, so it was intriguing that he--as a scientist, included a reference to "the Treaty of Tripoli" which seems like "insider baseball" for naysayers about America's spiritual foundations.

But when I read one of Gould's Evolution articles ("Hooking Leviathan by Its Past") I was intrigued by his reference to a purported discovery of a link between land mammals and whales as a "sociopolitical victory." Hmmm, I thought that Religious Conservatives were the ones with a "sociopolitical" agenda.

Well, when you read some of the criticism of this purported land mammal/whale link, it's easier to believe that Gould's pronouncements on science are driven by a "sociopolitical" agenda.