"I say to the grownups, if you want to deny evolution and live in your world, your world that's completely inconsistent with everything we observe in the universe, that's fine, but don't make your kids do it, because we need them," Nye said. "We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future."
Amen. Rationality.
Here is the full clip.
Now this does not have to discount religion or God. But to reject evolution, which has a plethora of scientific support, is foolish.
And what's the danger of denying evolution (as a billboard along the interstate between Fargo and Grand Forks tries to do?), well then you get into the silliness that is science denial.
The Tea Partiers and hard right wingers have their science denial in believing global warming is a hoax. To be far, the far left have their version of it too, believing science can instantly fix all problems, as in the idea of genetic foods.
The one single feature that helped make this nation the world power it is, is simply it's devotion to science. And this can be summed up in one simple word: Sputnik. Because we were terrified our Cold War enemies, the Russians, would beat us into space (and place weapons up there), we had a fantastic commitment to science across this nation that led us to some of the most important breakthroughs in world history.
Now, denial is different than skepticism. Skepticism is good. We need people to question and offer opposing views. But denial is the quickest way back to the dark ages because denial is simply the absolute refusal to believe, even when the facts are staring you right in the face.
We can't afford that. Neither can our kids. Or their kids.
No comments:
Post a Comment