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The
Continuing Need to Defend Science
The Bush administration is
finally gone. And a new administration with lots of talk about and some
plans for “change”
has
arrived.
During the last 8 years
science,
science policy and the very foundations of the scientific method and
scientific thinking, have been under full scale society-wide assault by
the Bush
administration and its extremist allies of the Religious Right, with
devastating results.
While we are entering a new
period and changes will occur, we have to ask, what kind of
changes? in whose interest? and with what impact on science
and scientific thinking? In this light, we think the Defend
Science! Statement
is not just a historical document but continues to inform our work:
Around
it's message a key
cross section
of thousands from the scientific community and the broader public,
concerned and determined to defend science, has gathered.
It
continues to provide
documentation
and a yardstick as well as an orientation with which to view the
continuing and in some cases intensifying attacks on science and to
rally those determined to defend science.
Yes, things are changing ...
and we are
closely following the new developments and drawing up new plans that
take into account the changing situation. But it is already clear
that attacks on science are still here. We are convinced that the work of
Defend Science will continue to be needed in this coming period. And so Defend Science must
and will continue.
In this light, we urge
everyone to read:
Celebrate
Darwin
Day 2009: Stand Up For the Science of Evolution
Defend
Science, Darwin and the Biologists
Attacks
on Science 2008: A Very Partial List
Urgent
Actions the Obama Administration Must Take To Reverse Last-Minute Bush
Regulations
And please send us your thoughts on all this by emailing us at: mail@defendscience.com
The Defend Science Statement
aims to rally
broad opposition and resistance to the mounting attacks on science and
scientific thinking which are unfolding in the United States. Our basic
aim now is to run the Defend Science Statement, signed by scientists,
as an ad in major newspapers, reaching millions. (At this point the
Statement is signed by over 2700 scientists and members of the
scientific community.) sign the statement...
view a selected list of
signatories...
join the Defend Science
supporters email list...
The Statement begins:
IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY SCIENCE, AS
SCIENCE, IS UNDER ATTACK AS NEVER BEFORE.
“The
signs of this are everywhere. The
attacks are coming at an accelerating pace, and include frequent
interventions by powerful forces, in and out of the Bush
Administration, who seem all too willing to deny scientific truths,
disrupt scientific investigations, block scientific progress, undermine
scientific education, and sacrifice the very integrity of the
scientific process itself -- all in the pursuit of implementing their
particular political agenda. And today this dominant political agenda
is profoundly allied and intertwined with an extremist (and extremely
anti-science) ideological agenda put forward by powerful fundamentalist
religious forces commonly known as the Religious Right. These
fundamentalists now have extensive influence and representatives in
major institutions of the U.S. government, including Congress and the
White House. This itself goes a long way towards explaining why science
itself is under such unprecedented attack.
”This excerpt
is from the
Defend Science
Statement. To read the full Statement, click
here.
The welcome verdict in the Dover lawsuit
over teaching intelligent design clearly does not mean an end to the
attacks on evolution, let alone scientific thinking. In Kansas,
the State Board of Education changed the very definition of science to
open the door to supernatural causes. What is centrally and crucially
involved in Kansas and in relation to the overall attacks on science is
a battle over the whole question of the scientific method and whether
that is going to be upheld and applied, or whether--even in the realm
of science itself--that method is going to replaced by something else,
which is antagonistically opposed to the scientific method. The
need to mount powerful and determined defense of science is greater
than ever.
Your signature and support for this Statement will make a great
difference at this dangerous time in our history. There are many
ways that people can help in addition to signing the Statement, which
are outlined here on the website, and we encourage you to send your
suggestions and thoughts on this by emailing us at mail@defendscience.com
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Defend Science!
Obama's Stem Cell
Policy - Needed Science Banned and
Constrained by Christian
Fundamentalist Ideology
Initially, it appeared
to many that Obama was truly standing up for science against the
backward forces of the Christian Fundamentalist right.
But now, the new National Institute of Health draft guidelines for stem
cell research have been issued and a more careful examination of these
rules and of what has happened and how it has happened reveals a very
different story. The truth is that while some changes may be made to
open up and fund some forms of stem cell research, Obama's overall
policy and moves mean that vital types of stem cell research are still
banned and that stem cell research overall still remains fettered by
the Christian fundamentalist position that there is something sacred
about the fertilized human egg (i.e. the blastocyst, a clump of cells
about the size of the period that ends this sentence) which should set
a barrier to important scientific and medical research.
To read
the entire article click here...
Texas: Two Major Attacks on Science - State Education Standards
for Science Undermine Teaching
Evolution
Christine Comer Case:
Undermines Educators' Ability to Defend
Science
A huge battle has been
taking place centering on what standards for teaching science would be
set by the Texas State Board of Education. These standards are meant to
dictate what is taught in science classes in elementary and secondary
schools, and also are meant to provide the material for state tests and
textbooks for the next decade. And the implications of these standards
go beyond Texas itself. As Texas is one of the largest markets for
school science textbooks, these Texas standards
could have a major effect on new textbooks used across the country.
The basic, scientific standards that apply here are clear:
evolution is true and should be taught as such;
creationism in any form is not science and should not be taught in
science classrooms
To read
the entire article click here...
Join in the battle to defend
science!
Funds Urgently
Needed! Our immediate goal is
to print in major news media. Help spread the word to others
about the
Statement and the need for funds.
make a donation...
Attacks
On Science 2008 - A Very Partial List (Sept., 2008)
The
attacks on science continue in 2008. The following list
outlines specific items making the news (some in a very limited
fashion). But perhaps the biggest items are those that do not
make headlines. The current administration has taken no action on
stem cell research since the November 2007 veto of legislation allowing
embryonic stem cell research to continue, and none of the current major
party presidential candidates, have raised the issue substantively in
their campaigns. Although the Bush Administration no
longer openly denies the science behind global warming, not a single
regulation addressing the pressing issues of greenhouse gases or other
related topics has been raised. Issues related to public
health and the environment have also been denied with further evidence
of the muzzling of government scientists in agencies such as NASA, the
EPA, and others coming to light. Equally chilling are the
increasing efforts to roll back women’s reproductive rights and to
force religion into science classrooms. Creationist bills are “brewing” in state
legislatures across the country - and have been passed and signed into
law in Louisiana (see below). And it is alarming in this context
that issues relating to science and scientific thinking are nearly
absent from substantive discussion in the presidential campaign - with
the “exception” of Vice Presidential nominee Palin’s creationism and
Biblical literalism.
read more...
You can sign the Statement on this
website. Just click here to add your name to
the growing list.
Scientists
and Members of the
Scientific Community:
• Sign and Circulate This Statement.
• Help Raise Funds to Have it Printed in Newspapers Across the Country,
and Internationally.
• Get This Statement Adopted by Scientific, Educational and Other
Associations and Institutions.
Members of the General Public:
• Join
the Defend Science supporters' mailing list. Just click
here
to add your name to the mailing list.
• Reprint and Circulate This
Statement, Help Spread the Word, Contribute Your Ideas About How to
Wage This Crucial Battle & Join With People in the Scientific
Community and Others to Wage This Battle.
• Help raise funds to print the Statement in as many newspapers and
journals as possible, in the U.S. and internationally.
One
small sample from hundreds of the depth of concern to Defend Science
and the broad & growing support for this initiative:
"I am a retired science
teacher in Kansas. For several years we put stickers in the front of
science textbooks and then took them out the next year. Teaching
science we could only say," It happened a long time ago." Teaching the
"Big Bang" theory one had to accept that "God created the earth" and as
answer to test questions. I had several parents come talk to me about
this issue. Basically the teachers still taught the same content and
only the parents got upset not the kids. Kansas students were the ones
to suffer as they graduated from high school with limited knowledge of
science."
--Marion McElroy, retired
public school science teacher, Kansas
view
more signatory comments...
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