The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney

[Buck Turgidson]

A new book that exposes the premise of the conservative anti-intellectual agenda.

When scientific information becomes merely something to be manipulated to achieve a political end, the quality and integrity of the political process inevitably suffer.

Furthermore, such politicization has a corrosive effect on the American public's trust in science. If Americans come to believe you can find a scientist willing to say anything, they will grow increasingly disillusioned with science itself. Ultimately, trapped in a tragic struggle between "liberal" science and "conservative" science, the scientific endeavor itself could lose legitimacy.

The Right's war on science also spreads a massive amount of misinformation, and sometimes even fosters outright ignorance. Consider the creationist quest to thwart the teaching of the theory of evolution to public school children. Science has managed to answer one of the most profound questions around—where does the human species come from?—but religious conservatives don't want anyone to know about it. And with the spread of ignorance and pseudoscience comes a decline in critical thinking—a lapse in our collective capacity to cut through all the lies and distortions and determine which ideas we should trust.

Finally, science politicization cheapens democratic debate among our citizens. When political argument descends into scientific disputation, each side races to find supporting "facts." This creates a breeding ground for disingenuousness, as fringe and pseudoscientific arguments make their way into the public sphere, generating sterile confusion rather than illumination. Meanwhile, with the underlying facts at issue, disputants have far more difficulty finding common ground. Instead, competing claims multiply while political positions harden and become entrenched.

http://www.waronscience.com/home.php

[ChairmanAgnostic]

1. the answer is simple. the religious reicht controls the GOP sci-gene.

the only reason that they destroy good science is for votes.
if there was a profit from good science, they would support it, even if they had to lie to their religious reicht.

[Buck Turgidson]

2. Yep. Money leads to power. That's their ultimate goal.

Reason exposes the fallacy of the conservative argument.

Facts are stupid things.
-- Ronald Reagan

[tocqueville]

3. Science is the pillar of democracy and liberty

only dictatorships have "politically correct science". There are plenty of historical examples from the Inquisition to Stalin and Hitler.

[Buck Turgidson]

4. I agree. And the opposite of science is faith.

Religious fundamentalism requires the believer to accept preposterous tenants on faith, without question or rigorous intellectual examinations.