The War On Science
One of the most disturbing developments in our modern world is the war being waged upon science by people of all manner of ideologies, faiths, values, backgrounds and professions.
The assault upon science is coming from all sides from religious believers, political extremists, intellectuals, ideologues, cranks, conmen, charlatans and many others. The war on science is taking place on many fronts in education, politics, the media and elsewhere.
There are many examples of the war on science: Creationism, the rejection of the sound science behind Global Warming by conservative ideologues, the attacks on genetically engineered foods and the rejection of scientifically based scholarship by many intellectuals. All sides seem to be equally guilty in this assault Christians, Moslems, Jews, Conservatives, capitalists, socialists, Marxists, environmentalists.
Yet the attacks all have one thin in common the rejection of science because science’s findings contradict part of their belief systems. Creationists reject evolution and geology because those scientific explanations disprove their mythology. Marxist intellectuals reject scholarly study of cultures because the findings of such study contradict their idiotic belief that all beliefs are equally valid. Conservative ideologues reject the science behind Global Warming because it validates the claims of environmentalists whom they despise.
Sometimes the attacks on science are motivated by fear such as the insane campaign against genetically engineered food in Europe. There is no scientific reason to suggest that the eating of genetically engineered food is dangerous to humans yet the import of such food into Europe has been banned. Science is rejected because it doesn’t validate someone’s fears. In the case of the refusal to examine religions, physical fear maybe the cause Marxist professors maybe afraid of terrorism and thuggery on the part of devout Muslims or Christians who will violently attack anyone who denies the divine origins of their faiths. The professors don’t want to admit they are afraid of thugs so they say they are respecting someone else’s faith.
Of course the rejection of science is very selective, the Creationists who reject evolution and the geologic evidence of the Earth’s age drive cars that run on petroleum based fuels. The oil these fuels are made from is located using geology and is made from the dinosaurs the creationists claim didn’t exist. The environmentalists who refuse to eat genetically engineered food have no problem embracing genetic medicine. The Marxist Professors who reject scientific study of the origin of religions embrace the scientific study of the origins of life and the universe.
The war on science like most crusades is a battle of hypocrisy those who fight against some aspects of science embrace others.
The question we should ask ourselves then is how do we accept all the findings of science those we find useful and those we find disconcerting?
The assault upon science is coming from all sides from religious believers, political extremists, intellectuals, ideologues, cranks, conmen, charlatans and many others. The war on science is taking place on many fronts in education, politics, the media and elsewhere.
There are many examples of the war on science: Creationism, the rejection of the sound science behind Global Warming by conservative ideologues, the attacks on genetically engineered foods and the rejection of scientifically based scholarship by many intellectuals. All sides seem to be equally guilty in this assault Christians, Moslems, Jews, Conservatives, capitalists, socialists, Marxists, environmentalists.
Yet the attacks all have one thin in common the rejection of science because science’s findings contradict part of their belief systems. Creationists reject evolution and geology because those scientific explanations disprove their mythology. Marxist intellectuals reject scholarly study of cultures because the findings of such study contradict their idiotic belief that all beliefs are equally valid. Conservative ideologues reject the science behind Global Warming because it validates the claims of environmentalists whom they despise.
Sometimes the attacks on science are motivated by fear such as the insane campaign against genetically engineered food in Europe. There is no scientific reason to suggest that the eating of genetically engineered food is dangerous to humans yet the import of such food into Europe has been banned. Science is rejected because it doesn’t validate someone’s fears. In the case of the refusal to examine religions, physical fear maybe the cause Marxist professors maybe afraid of terrorism and thuggery on the part of devout Muslims or Christians who will violently attack anyone who denies the divine origins of their faiths. The professors don’t want to admit they are afraid of thugs so they say they are respecting someone else’s faith.
Of course the rejection of science is very selective, the Creationists who reject evolution and the geologic evidence of the Earth’s age drive cars that run on petroleum based fuels. The oil these fuels are made from is located using geology and is made from the dinosaurs the creationists claim didn’t exist. The environmentalists who refuse to eat genetically engineered food have no problem embracing genetic medicine. The Marxist Professors who reject scientific study of the origin of religions embrace the scientific study of the origins of life and the universe.
The war on science like most crusades is a battle of hypocrisy those who fight against some aspects of science embrace others.
The question we should ask ourselves then is how do we accept all the findings of science those we find useful and those we find disconcerting?
posted by great one at 4:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home