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2008 Elections: Implications for Science
and Critical Thinking
“Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin told ministry students at her former church
that
the United States sent troops to fight in the Iraq war on a 'task
that is
from God.'
In an address last June, the Republican vice presidential candidate also
urged ministry students to pray for a plan to build a $30 billion
natural
gas pipeline in the state, calling it 'God's will.’” Associated
Press,
September 3, 2008
For all those hoping against hope that the attacks on science, critical
thinking, and rational thought were going to end with Bush, the
Republican
party made it clear enough where it stands on that question when it
brought forward the nomination of Sarah Palin. Palin called in
the past
for teaching creationism in science classes in public schools (though
more
recently has been cautious in stating what she thinks.) She is an
abortion opponent, an advocate of the view that life begins at
conception, and
an opponent of most birth control. As small town mayor in Alaska,
she raised whether it would be possible to ban books from the town
library, and tried to fire the town librarian who refused to go along.
And it isn’t just the Republican Party. Palin’s “pit bull” speech
at the
convention was met with praise from much of the media. And it is
rare
indeed to even find commentary in the mainstream media about what these
developments mean for science – and even rarer to find mention of
what
they mean for the broader public’s grasp of science and critical
thinking.
The Palin nomination is bad enough. But it follows in the wake of
ominous
earlier developments in the campaign. If you go back to the very
first
Republican presidential debate, nearly a year and a half ago, when there
were still 8 candidates considered contenders, one of the reporters
asked
the candidates whether they believed in evolution. Three of the
Republicans said they did not believe in evolution. McCain at the
time
responded to the question by saying he did believe in evolution (though
he
quickly added “I also believe, when I hike the Grand Canyon and see it
at
sunset, that the hand of God is there also.”) But within a few
weeks,
his campaign put out that it was up to each state to decide whether
science was going to be taught in science classes, or whether religion
would be taught, in one form or another of creationism. This is a
fundamental violation of the separation of church and state, goes
against a series of major court decisions, and it constitutes abuse of
the children who are denied an understanding of science and who get
religion forced into their heads in schools. Yet there was no
furor in the campaign – no speeches
by Democrats even mentioning this - or even any discussion at all in
the mainstream press – of any of this.
To get at this from another angle, consider what happened to Science
Debate 2008, an initiative which set out to mobilize the scientific
community to back a call for the candidates simply to debate some
important scientific questions – questions like global warming, where
nothing less than the fate of the planet is at stake (see the Science
Debate 2008 website for more). (Really pivotal questions like the
teaching of evolution – which gets at the core of what is being fought
out
in this society around science – were unfortunately not even included in
Science Debate 2008’s proposal.) Science Debate 2008 gathered the
support of huge sections of the scientific community – including the
National Academy of Science, American Association for the Advancement
of Science, 200 major universities, magazines like Scientific American.
The candidates (aided by most of the press), essentially ignored this
call, did not participate, and did not change what they were saying
about
these questions (which was almost nothing at all). Physicist Bob Parks
captured some of the outrage among a section of scientists in his weekly
email:
“The National Academies, the Council for Competitiveness and the AAAS
had agreed to serve as official cosponsors; the plan was endorsed by
all major research universities and scientific societies.
However, in a world faced with the threat of global warming, dwindling
fossil fuel, continuous
warfare, disease and starvation on the rise in Africa, spiraling food
prices world wide, the candidates must focus on "solutions." They have
therefore chosen to attend ‘The Compassion Forum’ instead, a ‘wide
ranging and probing discussion of policies related to moral issues.’ It
will be
held at Messiah College somewhere in central Pennsylvania. Founded by
the Brethren in Christ Church in 1909; Messiah’s motto is ‘Christ
Preeminent.’ It has not been decided whether the candidates will remain
on their knees during the debate.”
(Barack Obama has recently responded on-line to a series of questions
posed by Science Debate 2008, and apparently John McCain has agreed to
respond as well. Assessing Obama’s answers is beyond the scope of
this commentary. But these answers are posted on a website
visited by friends of science. In public forums and in the major press,
the press has not raised and neither candidate has raised any
substantive criticism of the
Bush regime’s 8 years of assault on scientific and critical thinking.
Instead, we have the Palin nomination – after 8 years of Bush’s ‘the
verdict is still out on evolution’, we now have Palin’s embrace of
creationism.)
One more sign of the seriousness of all of this was the strange
“discussion” involving McCain and Obama orchestrated by Rev. Rick
Warren of Saddleback Church. Despite the fact that this was
barely about science per se at all, what stood out again was the degree
to which Christian fundamentalism continues to set terms for national
debate and discussion, including how and whether questions of science
are raised. And it is alarming that Barack Obama contributed to
this by participating. His general approach of “seeking unity” and
“transcending divisions” is
leading him to seek to unite with both the fervent enemies of scientific
thinking and its friends; to both embrace theocrats and uphold the
separation of church and state at the same time. This “unity” is
ultimately impossible; it does not lead to strengthening scientific
understanding among the people; it is not what is needed in a time when
powerful forces continue to attack science.
What seems clear is there will continue to be a need for greatly
heightened resistance to the whole assault on the Enlightenment and on
reason and science. In relation to science, the conclusion of the
Defend
Science Statement captures an important starting point for this:
"We must refuse to accept a situation where scientific inquiry is
blocked
or its findings ruled out of order unless they conform to the goals of
the
government, to corporate interests and to the ideology of religious
fundamentalists; where dogma enforced by governmental and religious
authority takes the place of science; where the scientific approach of
seeking natural explanations for natural phenomena is suppressed. We
must
insist on an atmosphere where scientists are allowed to seek the truth,
even when the truth conflicts with the views and policies of those in
power, and where the scientific spirit is fostered, where science
education and the popularization of the scientific method are valued,
where people are encouraged to pursue an understanding of how and why
things are the way they are; where all that has been learned by humanity
so far, all that has repeatedly been tested and found to be true, serves
as the starting point for further investigation of reality."
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