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To: fredericbastiat1

From “Scientific Regress” in the May issue of First Thing, by William A. Wilson, a software engineer in San Francisco.

“The best scientists know that they must practice a sort of mortification of the ego and cultivate a dispassion that allows them to report their findings, even when those findings might mean the dashing of hopes, the drying up of financial resources, and the loss of professional prestige. It should be no surprise that even after outgrowing the monasteries, the practice of science has attracted souls driven to seek the truth regardless of personal cost and despite, for most of its history, a distinct lack of financial or status reward. Now, however, science and especially science bureaucracy is a career, and one amenable to social climbing. Careers attract careerists, in Feyerabend’s words: “devoid of ideas, full of fear, intent on producing some paltry result so that they can add to the flood of inane papers that now constitutes ‘scientific progress’ in many areas.”

If science was unprepared for the influx of careerists, it was even less prepared for the blossoming of the Cult of Science. The Cult is related to the phenomenon described as “scientism”; both have a tendency to treat the body of scientific knowledge as a holy book or an a-religious revelation that offers simple and decisive resolutions to deep questions. But it adds to this a pinch of glib frivolity and a dash of unembarrassed ignorance. Its rhetorical tics include a forced enthusiasm (a search on Twitter for the hashtag “#sciencedancing” speaks volumes) and a penchant for profanity. Here in Silicon Valley, one can scarcely go a day without seeing a t-shirt reading “Science: It works, b—es!” The hero of the recent popular movie The Martian boasts that he will “science the sh— out of” a situation. One of the largest groups on Facebook is titled “I f—ing love Science!” (a name which, combined with the group’s penchant for posting scarcely any actual scientific material but a lot of pictures of natural phenomena, has prompted more than one actual scientist of my acquaintance to mutter under her breath, “What you truly love is pictures”). Some of the Cult’s leaders like to play dress-up as scientists—Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson are two particularly prominent examples— but hardly any of them have contributed any research results of note. Rather, Cult leadership trends heavily in the direction of educators, popularizers, and journalists.

Read article at:

http://www.firstthings.com/article/2016/05/scientific-regress


2 posted on 04/26/2016 6:53:11 AM PDT by KeyLargo
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To: KeyLargo

Awesome article! Thank you for posting!!
The global warming activists and politicians know precisely what they are pushing - global wealth redistribution and a two class system - the ruling filthy rich class and the rest of us peasants.
1. Claim global warming is settle science.
2. Marginalize those who disagree by stating they want to kill the earth, millions of people, and not leave a planet for their children.
3. Once the majority fall in line, easily pass laws so violators are punished in the name of saving the earth.


6 posted on 04/26/2016 8:18:06 AM PDT by No_More_Harkin
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To: KeyLargo; 11B40; A Balrog of Morgoth; A message; ACelt; Aeronaut; AFPhys; AlexW; alrea; ...
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9 posted on 04/26/2016 12:41:44 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (Stick a fork in America; she's done.)
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To: KeyLargo

Good article...a keeper, thanks for posting


10 posted on 04/26/2016 3:47:21 PM PDT by Cuttnhorse
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