Science versus stupidiity

I have a rant this morning.

Here is my premise. Science is a huge part of human development. Our society has been built upon it. Our culture is what it is today because of it. Our standard of living is where it is thanks to people who sat back and asked “Why?” And then went and ran experiments to find that answers. And yes, along the way, they asked even more questions.  And as a species we grew because of it. We haven’t fought a lot of wars because of science.

But we have because of numbskull religious fanatics.

I have recently heard the most nonsensical conversations about science that has ever reached my ears, short of the Republican Presidential Primary Debates. Two guys were talking and one said to the other, “There is no evidence that this West Nile stuff is so dangerous that we need to be spending all of this money on mosquitoes. It is a waste.” And the other guy says, ”Yep. You are right.”

Now two things just happened in that innocent little conversations. (Three actually, but I am not counting the fact that the two guys, church-going pillars in our community, are idiots and showed themselves as such publicly. No, that is not part of the argument here.) The first thing is that speaker number one puts forth a wild opinion based on nothing but his uneducated opinion and his biases against any governmental body spending any money. (He must be a Tea Partier.) His claim seems to be based on logic and reason. Of course they are not. The second point is that his buddy, accepts what his friend as just said as TRUTH. It is as if he heard it from another, it must be true. Now he is indoctrinated and will spread the same empty jargon around as if it were scientific fact.

This is the foundation of Fox News and other right –wing organizations’ attack on science and scientific thinking. It is scary. It is backward. But, it is prevalent in a lot of people across our country, and it is growing. And it growing rapidly from the pulpits of our country’s churches.

“Science doesn’t know anything. It is wrong. It is not finding answers, only raising questions.” That is just some of the belief statements that come out of the mouths of these idiots. (They echo the words of Texas Czar, Rick Perry.) And then they turn to their representatives and says, “Let’s not fund anymore research. Let’s stop all this science stuff.” (I mean a lot of it is based on “evolution,” for God’s sake.)

Our family had a neighbor who used to say that global climate change was just an Al Gore trick to get re-elected. Really? What about the melting polar ice caps? What about Greenland going away in record acreages due to melting ice fields? Hello?  Then I would look at the guy and ask about the science of metallurgy, which was involved heavily with his career and he would say, “We know all we need to know in that field. Known since the 1800’s.  The rest of all that research is just for book stuff.”

Book stuff?

For me, I’ll take more scientists and fewer preachers and clergymen. I’ll take more labs and fewer churches. I’ll take more laws of physics than more printed Ten Commandments. I have had enough of religious folks evoking their stupidly limited knowledge of anything, as evidence that God did everything and that is all we need to know.

Science is about raising questions while looking for answers. Religion is about raising money for new church buildings. And by the way, West Nile is dangerous and mosquitos need spraying. It is science, Hilliard. I know you do not believe that, but trust me. It is. There’s tons of evidence that shows direct correlation to being bitten by mosquitos and the spread of things like West Nile, Malaria, etc.

But Hilliard, you wouldn’t know, because it is book stuff.