Our future depends on it
In the wake of Sarah Palins nomination to the GOP ticket I’ve been thinking a lot about the state of our country’s mindset. Let me explain, hopefully it’ll all connect together in the end.
Over the past decade America has seen a steady decline in the number of science PhDs we are graduating. This shift in our educational priorities is mirrored by a sharp rise in science PhDs graduating in Asia, especially in China. I see the results of this every day at my office desk; Americans are producing less and less scientific research while the rest of the world is producing more. The effects of this are both immediate and long-standing. In the immediate future America loses its position of scientific prowess; the best research occurs elsewhere, university prowess shifts to the east (and west) and thus the world’s best and brightest seek better places. The economic impact from losing the industrial innovation this research produces is clear, but continues into other spheres as well.
A 2006 NSF study found that just 23% of Americans could explain what it means to engage in a scientific study. John Miller of Michigan State University has been tracking science literacy in America for the past 20 years and recently published a study which states that a basic level of science literacy in this country is at 28% and falling each year. Most Americans are completely confused about the very basic principals of empirical evidence, composing a hypothesis, and proposing a theory. This bothers me greatly because this process of thinking is essential to the process of composing coherent beliefs about the world we live in. If you don’t understand what constitutes evidence, and why, then you are not equipped to engage a world that is increasingly dependent upon scientific progress.
In philosophy we call this type of thinking ‘reason’. Reason, it appears, is fighting a losing battle against the forces of credulity, fear, and superstition. This is where Sarah Palin ties in.
Sarah Palin, the woman whom the republicans believe is fit to rule the most powerful country on earth believes the earth is 6,000 years old. To be clear, this is no minor mistake. Current scientific estimates, corroborated by mutually agreeing standards of measurement peg the earth’s age at 4-5 billion years old. The magnitude of Palin’s disconnect reality is comparable to stating the distance between New York and San Francisco is 200 feet. This is no minor mistake.
As a country, as a world, we can no longer afford to elect officials with minds that belong in the Dark Ages; we simply cannot afford it. Religious belief, if it must exist, has to be a private affair. Our world is one of nuclear weapons, fanatical religion, and environmental disasters. We cannot damn our tumultuous future even further by placing it into the hands of someone who believes that hurricanes are an angry god’s punishment. We need leaders who are able to engage the world as it really is, not as they wish it to be. Faith, in a world of very real crisis, is an anchor that will pull our collective future to the depths of misery. History bears the scars of leaders who governed their people from a position of wanting reality to be a certain way rather than looking at the evidence and making prudent decisions. I dearly hope the citizens of this country will question our leaders with skeptical rigor. We can’t afford not to.
Over the past decade America has seen a steady decline in the number of science PhDs we are graduating. This shift in our educational priorities is mirrored by a sharp rise in science PhDs graduating in Asia, especially in China. I see the results of this every day at my office desk; Americans are producing less and less scientific research while the rest of the world is producing more. The effects of this are both immediate and long-standing. In the immediate future America loses its position of scientific prowess; the best research occurs elsewhere, university prowess shifts to the east (and west) and thus the world’s best and brightest seek better places. The economic impact from losing the industrial innovation this research produces is clear, but continues into other spheres as well.
A 2006 NSF study found that just 23% of Americans could explain what it means to engage in a scientific study. John Miller of Michigan State University has been tracking science literacy in America for the past 20 years and recently published a study which states that a basic level of science literacy in this country is at 28% and falling each year. Most Americans are completely confused about the very basic principals of empirical evidence, composing a hypothesis, and proposing a theory. This bothers me greatly because this process of thinking is essential to the process of composing coherent beliefs about the world we live in. If you don’t understand what constitutes evidence, and why, then you are not equipped to engage a world that is increasingly dependent upon scientific progress.
In philosophy we call this type of thinking ‘reason’. Reason, it appears, is fighting a losing battle against the forces of credulity, fear, and superstition. This is where Sarah Palin ties in.
Sarah Palin, the woman whom the republicans believe is fit to rule the most powerful country on earth believes the earth is 6,000 years old. To be clear, this is no minor mistake. Current scientific estimates, corroborated by mutually agreeing standards of measurement peg the earth’s age at 4-5 billion years old. The magnitude of Palin’s disconnect reality is comparable to stating the distance between New York and San Francisco is 200 feet. This is no minor mistake.
As a country, as a world, we can no longer afford to elect officials with minds that belong in the Dark Ages; we simply cannot afford it. Religious belief, if it must exist, has to be a private affair. Our world is one of nuclear weapons, fanatical religion, and environmental disasters. We cannot damn our tumultuous future even further by placing it into the hands of someone who believes that hurricanes are an angry god’s punishment. We need leaders who are able to engage the world as it really is, not as they wish it to be. Faith, in a world of very real crisis, is an anchor that will pull our collective future to the depths of misery. History bears the scars of leaders who governed their people from a position of wanting reality to be a certain way rather than looking at the evidence and making prudent decisions. I dearly hope the citizens of this country will question our leaders with skeptical rigor. We can’t afford not to.
Labels: reason, Sarah Palin, science
posted by Joel at
3:46 PM
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