Conservatives' Trust In Science Has Fallen Dramatically Since Mid-1970s

Originally posted by roguetechie
So go ahead and crow about your junk study that doesn't really say anything at all scientific. People like YOU are what is contributing to the distrust of science by turning it into a political axe to grind.

Stuff like this is quite common in academia.

I read a recent opinion piece by Lawrence Krauss concerning 'conservatives', and I was so disgusted (he has a PhD, he's published, he's intelligent.. until it comes to adapting what he knows to the exchanges of everyday life), that I wrote him a lengthy e-mail to explain how embarrassing it is for a scientist of his caliber to uncritically perpetuate political memes (while appealing to science, ironically), not to mention the irresponsible allocations of funding that could be used for developing technology.

That embarrasses me as a scientist. We need more scientists/researchers like Richard Feynman and Terence Kealey.

reply to post by TrueBrit

First of all, it is not science that people distrust, but scientists, and those who pay thier wages.

Would that this were so. Unquestionably, there are scientists who allow their political views or greed to affect their findings, but there has been a growing movement to distrust the scientific method itself. Many people do not understand what science is and how it operates. They seem to think that scientists are a priesthood who make ex cathedra pronouncements. This ignorance is exploited by those with a political or economic agenda, and no end of the political spectrum is exempt from these tactics. It so happens that the Religious Right is the most vocal practitioner, as the very basis of their belief system (and political power) cannot withstand scientific examination.

Originally posted by smyleegrl
It has to do with fear, I think.

I grew up in a loving Christian household. Both of my parents are rational people and my father earned his living as a surveyor/engineer. But try and discuss potential problems with current Christian thinking....that immediately shuts them down. They refuse to consider it.

As a teenager, I began to question the assumption I'd always held that Christianity was the only true religion. This questioning so consumed me that my undergraduate degrees where in theology and religious history.

You know what? It was terrifying to have to reevaluate your foundational principals. What if there is no God? What if God isn't the God of the Bible? What if the Bible is flawed? What if what if what if.....

Far easier to wave your hand and simply say, "The Bible said it, I believe it, that settles it."

Or with the fact that the sciences have been hijacked by radical Marxist's who lie through their teeth about things to justify their goal of global communism/socialism. That I think is the number one reason why scientist's in general lost most of their credibility.

and who created and issued this test? were they conservatives?

I think they breed each other, it's all environmental factors.
if they took this test in like alabama then no wonder, cause no one I know has lost faith in science, but in a god that never existed, maybe.