Not good enough , say those people who are in denial against the warm warriors. Why? Because scientists are behind the crazy notion and who can entrust scientists to know anything about anything, for God's sake. Against evidence to the contrary, these same naysayers insisted that a curve ball doesn't...well, curve, because they were never asked to hit one. Or maybe they heard a damning reference to it on Fox News. Or from their preacher. Or Republican county chairman.
A study published in American Sociological Review, which reached me via Slate Magazine, confirms that opposition to science is rising dramatically among conservatives. Sociologist Gordon Gauchat of the University of North Carolina, who led the study, reports that only 35 pct. of conservatives have a "great deal" of trust in science, well below the 63 pct. who trusted it in the mid-1970s.
His explanation in U.S. News:
"Science has become autonomous with government - it develops knowledge that helps regulate policy, and in the case of the EPA, it develops policy. Science is charged with what religion used to be charged with - answering questions about who we are and what we came from, what the world is about. We're using it in American society to weigh in on political debates, and people are coming down on a specific side."
In other words, conservatives like McRick Santorum and his legions of conservative supporters are telling us that you can't believe both science and religion. A fellow named
Galileo could have vouched for something like that.
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