[IP] Is US becoming hostile to science?
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From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 29, 2005 4:04:01 AM EDT
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Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Is US becoming hostile to science?
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[Note: This item comes from reader Robert Berger. DLH]
From: "Robert J. Berger" <rberger@xxxxxxx>
Date: October 28, 2005 10:14:40 PM PDT
To: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Dave Farber <dave@xxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Is US becoming hostile to science?
Is US becoming hostile to science?
Fri Oct 28, 2005 1:10 PM BST
By Alan Elsner
<http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/NewsArticle.aspx?
type=scienceNews&storyID=2005-10-28T120957Z_01_SCH843728_RTRIDST_0_SCI
ENCE-SCIENCE-USA-DC.XML>
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bitter debate about how to teach evolution
in U.S. high schools is prompting a crisis of confidence among
scientists, and some senior academics warn that science itself is
under assault.
In the past month, the interim president of Cornell University and
the dean of the Stanford University School of Medicine have both
spoken on this theme, warning in dramatic terms of the long-term
consequences.
"Among the most significant forces is the rising tide of anti-
science sentiment that seems to have its nucleus in Washington but
which extends throughout the nation," said Stanford's Philip Pizzo
in a letter posted on the school Web site on October 3.
Cornell acting President Hunter Rawlings, in his "state of the
university" address last week, spoke about the challenge to science
represented by "intelligent design" which holds that the theory of
evolution accepted by the vast majority of scientists is fatally
flawed.
Rawlings said the dispute was widening political, social, religious
and philosophical rifts in U.S. society. "When ideological division
replaces informed exchange, dogma is the result and education
suffers," he said.
Adherents of intelligent design argue that certain forms in nature
are too complex to have evolved through natural selection and must
have been created by a "designer," who could but does not have to
be identified as God.
AT ODDS WITH BUSH
In the past five years, the scientific community has often seemed
at odds with the Bush administration over issues as diverse as
global warming, stem cell research and environmental protection.
Prominent scientists have also charged the administration with
politicizing science by seeking to shape data to its own needs
while ignoring other research.
Evangelical and fundamentalist Christians have built a powerful
position within the Republican Party and no Republican, including
Bush, can afford to ignore their views.
This was dramatically illustrated in the case of Terri Schiavo
earlier this year, in which Republicans in Congress passed a law to
keep a woman in a persistent vegetative state alive against her
husband's wishes, and Bush himself spoke out in favor of "the
culture of life."
The issue of whether intelligent design should be taught, or at
least mentioned, in high school biology classes is being played out
in a Pennsylvania court room and in numerous school districts
across the country.
The school board of Dover, Pennsylvania, is being sued by parents
backed by the American Civil Liberties Union after it ordered
schools to read students a short statement in biology classes
informing them that the theory of evolution is not established fact
and that gaps exist in it.
The statement mentioned intelligent design as an alternative theory
and recommended students to read a book that explained the theory
further.
Brown University biologist Kenneth Miller believes the rhetoric of
the anti-evolution movement has had the effect of driving a wedge
between a large proportion of the population who follow
fundamentalist Christianity and science.
"It is alienating young people from science. It basically tells
them that the scientific community is not to be trusted and you
would have to abandon your principles of faith to become a
scientist, which is not at all true," he said.
On the other side, conservative scholar Michael Novak of the
American Enterprise Institute, believes the only way to heal the
rift between science and religion is to allow the teaching of
intelligent design.
"To have antagonism between science and religion is crazy," he said
at a forum on the issue last week.
Proponents of intelligent design deny they are anti-science and say
they themselves follow the scientific method.
AMERICANS DON'T ACCEPT EVOLUTION
Polls for many years have shown that a majority of Americans are at
odds with key scientific theory. For example, as CBS poll this
month found that 51 percent of respondents believed humans were
created in their present form by God. A further 30 percent said
their creation was guided by God. Only 15 percent thought humans
evolved from less advanced life forms over millions of years.
Other polls show that only around a third of American adults accept
the Big Bang theory of the origin of the universe, even though the
concept is virtually uncontested by scientists worldwide.
"When we ask people what they know about science, just under 20
percent turn out to be scientifically literate," said Jon Miller,
director of the center for biomedical communication at Northwestern
University.
He said science and especially mathematics were poorly taught in
most U.S. schools, leading both to a shortage of good scientists
and general scientific ignorance.
U.S. school students perform relatively poorly in international
tests of mathematics and science. For example, in 2003 U.S.
students placed 24th in an international test that measured the
mathematical literacy of 15-year-olds, below many European and
Asian countries.
Scientists bemoan the lack of qualified U.S. candidates for
postgraduate and doctoral studies at American universities and
currently fill around a third of available science and engineering
slots with foreign students.
Northwestern's Miller said the insistence of a large proportion of
Americans that humans were created by God as whole beings had
policy implications for the future.
"The 21st century will be the century of biology and we are going
to be confronted with hundreds of important public policy issues
that require some understanding that all life is interconnected,"
he said.
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
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