Truth, Science, and the Upcoming Elections
Thursday, 2. November 2006, 19:06:52
The mid-term elections are coming up, and while I'm a little too world-
weary to be involved much in it all, I received an e-mail from the SEA
today and I thought I would post a portion for any of my readers who may
be interested.
The idea of truth has been considerably undermined in our culture of
late. Too many people openly talk of truth as if it were just a matter
of some public opinion poll or whatever spin the interpreter chooses to
put on things.
I rap my knuckles against my desk. It makes a sound. I see my desk, I
hear the sound it makes. If I wished, I could take a knife and cut a
piece of it and put that sample under a microscope or subject it to
chemical analysis. It is real. Its existence is not dependent upon some
political analysis on FOX News.
There has been a lot of mention of "heroes" over the past five years.
But people like Copernicus and Galieo and Darwin -- and Voltaire too,
in his own way -- were also heroes. They were men who fought against the
ignorance and superstitions of their day to find the hard-fought-for
truth.
Fiction is not Non-Fiction. Spin and opinion are not evidence. And lies
are NOT truth, no matter how dire the circumstance or how great the
emotional need to believe them.
We cannot allow the ideals of the Enlightenment to give way to a new
Dark Age. For it is more than just Democracy and "our way of life" --
both products of the Enlightenment -- that are at stake. What is at
stake is life in general, the continuation of the human species.
****
from Scientists and Engineers for America
Letter of 2 November 2006 -- Candidate Questions
1. Do you support the Science and Engineering Bill of Rights?
2. Do you support lifting the President's ban on the use of federal
funding for embryonic stem cell research given appropriate ethical
guidelines?
3. Should emergency contraception as recommended by FDA scientific
staff and advisory committees be available over the counter for all
women of childbearing age?
4. Do you endorse immediate and significant actions to diminish the
effects of global warming caused primarily by burning fossil fuel and
other human activity?
5. Should the research budgets of federal research agencies be
increased substantially?
6. Do you support the teaching of Intelligent Design or creationism as
an alternative theory to evolution in science classes?
7. Do you support strengthening the science and engineering advice for
Congress by creating an organization to replace the Office of Technology
Assessment (abolished in 1995)?
8. Should the United States ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty
and stop all work on new nuclear weapons?
9. Should the United States adopt visa policies that encourage highly
skilled scientists and engineers from around the world to study and work
in the United States?
10. Should there be a significant increase in federal funding for
training science and mathematics teachers and development of high-
quality curricular materials - including teaching materials that use new
information technologies like the Internet?
WIDGETIZE