Actually, they have a lot more ammo. than that, but some of them aren't the fundamentalists' fault. Global warming is one. And the left made their own war on science in the 90's. The 'war against science' was once our issue, and it could still be.
This is something I recently posted on pandasthumb.org, after FReeper curiosity asked me over for a little rumble. We figured two conservatives should be able to take on 20 or so liberals. :-)
Some historical perspective here.I came of age in the science wars of the late 80s. I remember vividly attending a faculty party in 1988 where virtually the entire body present declared allegiance to Jesse Jackson, for a variety of vapid idiotic reasons. I couldn’t believe it. I’d lived in Massachusetts under Dukakis’s governorship, and while I didn’t agree with him 100%, I respected him as a competent governor of unimpeachable integrity, and a competitive centrist candidate for the presidency (this was beforee the campaign self-destructed in late summer). But then, one of the faculty present assured me that the very idea of scientific objectivity was racist, sexist and heterosexist, and the others nodded solemnly in agreement.
Fast forward to the nineties, where one feminist scholar proclaimed that phsyicists had neglected hydrodynamics because of fear of menstrual flow; where other scholars on the left were promoting ‘ethnomathematics’; where Roberta Achtenberg, Clinton’s appointee at HUD, was giving merit raises for membership in ethnic and leftist organizations; where in schools we were getting ‘whole math’ and ‘whole language’ and huge dollops of multicultural twaddle. Postmodernism ruled the academic left, and was being pushed on public schools.
Ten years later, the boot is on the other foot. The Religious Right has discovered and embraced some parts of postmodernism. The same kooky ideas used to attack science from the left in the 90’s are now being used to attack it from the right this decade. Yes, far more Republicans are pro-creationism/ID. But a substantial part of the left still rejects science as a privileged, white male heterosexist discourse. They’re just out of power, and quiet for the moment. So you’ll pardon me if I don’t run leftwards to look for support against the fundies.
This country badly needs secular conservatism, because if the right/left split becomes a Christian/secularist split, elections become religious wars, and religious wars are far nastier than arguments over taxes and the deficit. Bashing secular conservatives because you’re liberal is no smarter than bashing Christian evolutionists because you’re atheist. You may not agree with them, but you need them.
The GOP has been far smarter than the Dems, except perhaps Bill Clinton, in building coalitions. They are currently splintering, mostly because of the hubris of religious right. This will be a useful reversal for the GOP and will lead to a temporary advantage for the Democrats. While your adversary is in the process of self-destructing, why would you want to intervene?
As a secular conservative, this thread reminds me why I’m conservative. It would be far better to remind me why I’m secular.
BTW, intruding religious beliefs into science class is not a 'mild request' in the minds of scientists.
Excellent post. Thank you.
I'll concur with others that your post is good, but that doesn't mean I agree with everything in it! :-)
#####The GOP has been far smarter than the Dems, except perhaps Bill Clinton, in building coalitions. They are currently splintering, mostly because of the hubris of religious right.#####
Gotta disagree! The GOP is in trouble right now because of RINOs who support big spending, oppose protecting the borders, want to reward illegal aliens with amnesty, and a variety of other issues. Whenever the GOP moves leftward, it sinks. We could include the Harriet Miers nomination in this category had President Bush not corrected his mistake with Sam Alito. The religious right is the most loyal constituency the GOP has. That's why the GOP feels it can ignore them, even betray them, and still count on their loyalty. Secular, "moderate" Republicans are far less loyal. A lot is made here of the fact that the pro-ID Dover GOP school board was ousted in favor of leftist Democrats, but that's because secular Republicans sided with the Democrats over conservative Republicans. In contrast, liberal Republican Arlen Specter won re-election in Pennsylvania because conservatives limited their opposition to him to intra-party activities. They fought him in the primary, but when he won it, they backed him in the general election.
If a secularist Republican beats a Christian Republican in a primary, Christian voters will support the secularist in the general election because of party loyalty, but a Christian who beats a secularist in a GOP primary always has to worry about the secularist's backers defecting to the Democrat in the general election.
Even Barry Goldwater, when he became militantly secularist after marrying a leftist woman in his old age, caused the GOP to temporarily lose a U.S. House seat in Arizona. When a pro-life Republican beat a pro-abortion Republican in the primary in Goldwater's home district, he endorsed Karan English, a hardcore left-wing feminist Democrat. She won the election, using Goldwater's endorsement to tar her opponent as someone trying to impose a theocracy on America.
####BTW, intruding religious beliefs into science class is not a 'mild request' in the minds of scientists.####
If science is truly neutral on religion as claimed, the requests of critics of evolution wouldn't ruffle many feathers.
If science is clueless regarding God's existence or non-existence, then a few minutes of class time discussing this fact wouldn't hurt anything.
<thunderous appause!>
Sounds like shooting fish in a barrel, Prof--hope you gave them a handicap to make it a bit more sporting!
Thanks for your post, btw: the situation you describe in the 1990's was similar in Europe: after the arts and the soft sciences, the Left began its post-modernist assault on the hard sciences, but without much success. Here, at least, Conservatives remain stalwart defenders of genuine education, the only really vocal religious pressure group are the Islamists.