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To: PatrickHenry; Physicist; RadioAstronomer; Right Wing Professor; Ichneumon; js1138; ...
Damn PH, I was planning on posting this morning, then ask you to ping the list before the anti-science ignorati came on board! :-)

The anti-Republican (and implicitly anti-conservative slant) should be of concern, not just for the future of conservatism and the Republican party (something which I, and nearly else here, has rehashed a hundred times before), but for the future of scientific literacy. Unlike the rest of you, I'm not a scientist nor do I have any formal scientific training. I'm just a rhetorician. But my particular academic training plus my layman's status may give me a unique perspective on this issue. The way I see it, part of the problem isn't just that the Republican party or conservatism are increasingly seen as anti-science; it's also that too many laypeople see science as hostile to their traditions and values, and for this reason, increasingly find themselves alienated from it. It's bad enough that blacks and other minorities are discouraged from pursuing science because it is perceived as being "white", but now, those groups are further discouraged, along with the majority, because science is perceived as "anti-religious" (something the article fails to mention is that blacks, Hispanics, and other visible minorities are also among the most devoutly religious groups in America), and for a large part of the population, because it is perceived as being "liberal". This is the impression I have received from many of many debates with creationists on FR, who grumble about "liberal scientists" in the public eye (as on this thread here). Although it is both the right and responsibility of scientists, as citizens, to speak out on politics, I fear that the public backlash on science may be a consequence of such outspokenness. Worse yet, instead of simply expressing politically liberal viewpoints, many scientists engage in ad homneim attacks against conservatives in general, declaring that conservatives are "too stupid" to be scientists or to even understand science, which only makes things drives the general public further away. What can be done, then? Well, first of all, scientists in the public eye need to recognize the consequences of their speaking out, to know their audiences, and that what they say will have multiple meanings to different audience members. While they should be prevented from expressing their political views, they should recognize the consequences of voicing them. Secondly, there has been a widely expressed question in the past two years: Where are all the conservative scientists? They don't exist, smugly say the liberals, who predominate among politically vocal scientists, including scientists who blog. But they do exist, as FR demonstrates, and they need to speak louder-much louder than they have so far. They need to let the public know that science is objective and universal and independent of any political belief system, and that it can be appreciated and understood by everyone. We hear so much about the need for women and minority scientists to serve as "role models" to encourage underrepresented groups; conservative and Republican scientists need to do the same (they may also be underrepresented, but how underrepresented is unknown to me). More conservative scientists need to organize themselves into coherent political organizations in order to provide strategies to educate politicians and the public, to start blogging more(nearly all scientists who blog are liberal, but there are exceptions, such as Razib at Gene Expression, Lubos Motl at the world's best physics blog, and a certain chemist), and basically let their voices be heard more in the mainstream of both the news media and scientific community. This won't solve the problem, but it may encourage greater public curiosity and appreciation for the importance of science in political understanding and decision-making.

63 posted on 04/19/2006 7:01:46 AM PDT by RightWingAtheist (Creationism is to conservatism what Howard Dean is to liberalism)
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To: RightWingAtheist; All
While they should not be prevented from expressing their political views, they should recognize the consequences of voicing them

That's what I meant to say! Sorry too, about the crappy formatting!

72 posted on 04/19/2006 7:10:00 AM PDT by RightWingAtheist (Creationism is to conservatism what Howard Dean is to liberalism)
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To: RightWingAtheist

If creationists believe in a Flying Spaghetti Monster, then the religionists of Evolutionism believe in a Boiling Primordial Spaghetti Sauce...


76 posted on 04/19/2006 7:14:16 AM PDT by Sir Francis Dashwood (LET'S ROLL!)
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To: RightWingAtheist
They need to let the public know that science is objective and universal and independent of any political belief system, and that it can be appreciated and understood by everyone.

An interesting post. What you say has some truth to it. The scientific method and scientific inquiry themselves are consist of a universal search for objective truth and are apolitical.

Unfortunately, the scientific establishment is far from being apolitical. A majority of scientists in America are liberal atheists who have far more in common with journalists than they do with giants like Einstein, Newton, and Pasteur.
80 posted on 04/19/2006 7:16:08 AM PDT by Old_Mil (http://www.constitutionparty.org - Forging a Rebirth of Freedom.)
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To: RightWingAtheist

I'd love to agree, but as a conservative scientist who has been outspoken for a quarter century, what little abuse I've gotten from fellow scientists has paled in comparison to the crap I've gotten from fundamentalist Christians, on the one hand, and from liberal humanities types, on the other. Often, in fact, the liberal pomos and the fundamentalists are de facto allies.


83 posted on 04/19/2006 7:22:55 AM PDT by Right Wing Professor
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