Welcome to the Tuesday edition of the Street Prophets Coffee Hour, an open thread conveniently located at the intersection of Religion and Politics. One of the important topics today is science.
We live in a time and a place were science is being attacked daily by religious and political conservatives. They do not want science taught in the schools—particularly evolution, sexuality, and climate change—and they want governmental agencies to stop using science in making decisions. They seem to want to regress to a mythical world in which only their holy book is taught in schools and that it be taught as factual rather than simply literature. They want decisions to be made on religious laws from an ancient past. They want medical doctors to lie to their patients about abortion, birth control, and death.
Science is about a fact-based observation of the world. In an essay in Science and Religion: Are They Compatible?, Eugenie Scott writes:
“Science is a way of knowing that attempts to explain the natural world using natural causes. It is agnostic toward the supernatural—it neither confirms nor rejects it.”
In his book Human Evolution, Robin Dunbar writes:
“Science proceeds not by getting the answers right on the first shot, but by making us ask questions.”
In her book A History of God: The 4,000-year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Karen Armstrong writes:
“Science demands the fundamental belief that there is a rational explanation for everything; it also requires an imagination and courage which are not dissimilar to religious creativity. Like the prophet or the mystic, the scientist also forces himself to confront the dark and unpredictable realm of uncreated reality.”
In his 1996 book The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Carl Sagan describes talking with high school seniors about science:
“They memorize ‘facts.’ By and large, though, the joy of discovery, the life behind those facts, has gone out of them. They’ve lost much of the wonder, and gained very little skepticism.”
Neil deGrasse Tyson recently warned that scientific illiteracy is a threat to the United States. He said:
“Americans overall are bad at science. Scared of math. Poor at physics and engineering. Resistant to evolution. This science illiteracy is a threat to the nation.
The consequence of that is that you breed a generation of people who do not know what science is nor how and why it works. You have mortgaged the future financial security of your nation. Innovations in science and technology are the (basis) of tomorrow’s economy.”
Without science, without an investment in science education in our public schools, and without an investment in research by the government, it is not possible to “Make America Great Again.” Without science, we return to the Middle Ages.
On April 22, 2017 there is going to be a March for Science which will be a celebration of science and a call to support and safeguard the scientific community.
Open Thread
This is an open thread: all topics are welcome. Feel free to discuss science or whatever interests you.