Judging by the continuous trickle of rather bizarre e-mails from supporters of creationism who also happen to be self proclaimed 'right-wing patriots', and the continued flow of wingers on Blogs across the blogosphere who claim to be against science on behalf of God; I must admit I don't seem to be getting through on this whole science thing.
Then I had an epiphany! I've been going about it all wrong. I've been stressing accuracy, evidence, references, peer review, methodology, and testability/faslifiability. That's way, way too complicated for Neo-right wingers! Besides, to help wingers understand the importance of science, all I needed to do was point out that science helps us Smite the Dirty Heathens with God's Holy Wrath, i.e., killing human beings, bombing civilians, shooting women and children more accurately, and poisoning their air, crops, and water supplies, much more effectively!
A force of 10,000 American troops can take on 100,000 enemy soldiers from the next best army on earth, on their home turf, and wipe the floor with them, because of our superior weapons, tactics, and logistics: i.e. our
science. We were able to move 150,000 troops halfway around the world with everything they needed, to beat the 500,000 man Iraqi Army in their own country hands down, because of our superior
science. Most of our enemies are reluctant to attack us, in large part because they know our response will crush them flatter than a radioactive pancake. That's the applications of
science. We won the Cold War, in large part because of our superior
science.
In Neo-Christian speaketh, because of our superior science, we can rumble thee forth to the land of the unbelieving scum on the other side, and verily, choppeth them up, and stompeth them down (From Frank Zappa). Or fry their foul heathen bodies into charred, sizzling, bags of human meat, with the Mighty and Righteous vengance of da Lord-eh; and our Very Smart Bombs and Guns. Because of science, we can really take care of YVWH's bidness!
You may be unaware of a fact about Intelligent Design Creationists from the Discovery Institute (The primary PR vector for Intelligent Design) not widely known ... The anti-science crowd wants to destroy all science and replace it with supernatural, pseudoscientific bullshit, evolution is just the start, the test case. That's what modern creationism is all about. This strategy is called the The Wedge. Read in their own words:
"The social consequences of materialism have been devastating. As symptoms, those consequences are certainly worth treating. However, we are convinced that in order to defeat materialism, we must cut it off at its source. That source is scientific materialism. This is precisely our strategy. If we view the predominant materialistic science as a giant tree, our strategy is intended to function as a "wedge" that, while relatively small, can split the trunk when applied at its weakest points."
How'd you like to face an RPG ambush, and have someone tell you no science allowed, no FLIR imaging, no sat or Predator data, no JDAMS, until you first give a supernatural deity the fair chance to intervene in the interests of epistemology? How'd you like to be wounded in combat and have a 50-50 chance of decent medical treatment, because a handful of religious maniacs think that modern medicine is on par with faith healing, and demand "equal time"?
It's one thing to be ignorant. There is no shame in that. That can be rectified. And we can start rectifying it right here in regard to evolutionary biology or anything else in science. It's another thing to be willfully ignorant and demand to stay that way. That can be frustrating, but at least they're only affecting themselves and possibly their very unfortunate children. The handful of us who take the time to correct Creationist deceptions as a sort of hobby, get boatloads of willful ignorance. We're used to that.
But when someone is willfully ignorant, demands to stay that way, and then goes on to work hard at having their willful ignorance reclassified and forced on everyone else as the desired National Standard of Knowledge and Education: That's just flat out revolting, not to mention pointless and counter productive to our interest as a nation. And that's what the Discovery Institute, cheered on by some elements of the Neo-Christian right, hope to accomplish. Evolution is just the beginning of their plans.
"You don't win wars by dying for your country. You wins war by making the other poor son-of-a-bitch die for his!" Gen. George Patton.
Are any of you under the simplistic warm-fuzzy notion that America wins wars because our troops are braver than our enemies? Or because they fight harder? Cowards don't fly jumbo-jets into skyscrapers people. That kind of act may be hideous, it may be misguided and murderous, they are terrorists; but it's not cowardly. The 9-11 pilots? Terrorists; yes. Murderers; check. Deranged sociopaths; almost certainly. Violent Religious Fanatics; definitely .... Cowards; nope. We win, most of the time anyway, even though we're usually outnumbered, because our military science and technology is vastly superior to that of our foe.
We as a nation are critically dependent on the applications of science for our cushy way of life, our safety, our food, our water, and future well being; in every respect you can imagine, including warfare. We already have enough problems keeping ahead of India and China, or any other nation nipping at our heels. We want and must to keep that science gap between our nation and the science in other nations, nice and wide.
We really do not need more anti-science charlatans screwing that up and fanning that fire of antiscience ignorance. We already have some pretty sad stats in science and math in this country. Students from India, Pakistan, Turkey, Iran, are coming here in droves and kicking American student's asses in math and science. I know, I used to teach calculus. The foreign students from those nations just walk all over our students. Those foriegn devils employ a dastardly and unfair set of tactics to blow the grading curve for American students using any or all of "Going to class regularly, taking good notes, doing all homework, availing themselves of instructor office hours and asking for help when they're stuck, and studying". American students have difficulty adapting to theese underhanded tactics ...
That's very worrisome, because the US is critically dependent on science for defense technology alone. Helping anyone who wants to destroy science here in America, especially if you feel we should dominate the entire world with military might, makes about as much sense as South Africa getting rid of geology and mining engineers, and replacing them with medieval magic and dowsing.
Science is bad? Scientists are left wing dopes? Creationists have a clue? You've been conned people, if you think there really is a non-evolutionary, scientifically testable alternative to explaining biodiversity, or that creationists care about science or their own integrity. You've been sold a bill of goods that doesn't exist. You've been swindled, and what's sickening is you're arguing for these unpatriotic liars, instead of kicking their ass to the curb. You wingers claim to love America right? Here's a soundbite: If you don't support science, you might as well cut Lady Liberty's throat and watch her bleed to death.
We are not the largest nation. We are no longer the wealthiest nation. In fact we're in debt to the Chinese, Saudis, and Japanese, up to our eyeballs. But we have the most badass scientists on the planet. Don't go dicking around with our one advantage you nitwits. Our national security is so utterly contingent on science, it's damn near treasonous for anyone to aid and abet destroying it in anyway.