Is The U.S. Becoming Anti-Science?

smooth wombat writes "As a follow-up to a recently posted Slashdot article, Reuters UK has an article which poses the question: is the U.S. becoming hostile to science? From the article: 'Among the most significant forces is the rising tide of anti-science sentiment that seems to have its nucleus in Washington but which extends throughout the nation,' said Stanford's Philip Pizzo in a letter posted on the school Web site on October 3. Cornell acting President Hunter Rawlings, in his state of the university address last week, spoke about the challenge to science represented by intelligent design which holds that the theory of evolution accepted by the vast majority of scientists is fatally flawed. Rawlings said the dispute was widening political, social, religious and philosophical rifts in U.S. society. 'When ideological division replaces informed exchange, dogma is the result and education suffers,' he said." What is your take?

Comments

The Rise of the Holy American Empire

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't think of this as faling behind in science -- think of it like the guy in Conan the Barbarian who explained the Riddle of Steel essentially by stating that technology isn't as strong as the power of religions over other people's minds. ("steel isn't strong, boy, flesh is stronger").

Rather than pine away about how the US is losing the edge in technology, consider it the beginning of a new spiritual prominance that we're gaining instead - hopefully based on our newfound re-discover of Inteligent Design in the form of the FSM.

Thank You, Ramen

Re:first

[The Clockwork Troll]

No no no.

It was the Flying Spaghetti Monster, then God, then Darwin, then the real first post, then your post.

Another Intelligent Design theory

[rminsk]

... Let us remember that there are multiple theories of Intelligent Design. I and many others around the world are of the strong belief that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster. It was He who created all that we see and all that we feel. We feel strongly that the overwhelming scientific evidence pointing towards evolutionary processes is nothing but a coincidence, put in place by Him. ... http://www.venganza.org/

Re:Another Intelligent Design theory

[Eccles]

-1, Heretic

Re:Another Intelligent Design theory

[MichaelSmith]

that the universe was created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster

But who created the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

Of Course Not!

[taskforce]

This is preposterous! The US has produced a number of excellent scientific theorum in recent times, including Intelligent Design and Intelligent Falling

Science apparently has no place......

[8127972]

.... in an America dominated the religious right.

I wonder if there's a scientific reason for that?

Re:Is The U.S. Becoming Anti-Science?

[Junior J. Junior III]

Is it? I say we reserve judgement until I've had time to collect, validate, and interpret some data on this...

U.S. NOT becoming anti-science

[Anonymous Coward]

Pro-stupid is more accurate.

Re:Of course it isn't

[rmayes100]

At least Nietzsche existed at one point.

Welcome to the church of Slashdot!

[Anonymous Coward]

It's so refreshing to read all of these oh so witty responses from all of you open minded Slashdot folks. not.

Re:No...

[Anonymous Coward]

Any other stupid responses (besides the parent)?

Apparently yes:

Any other stupid responses (besides the parent)?

Re:Is The U.S. Becoming Anti-Science?

[mugs_oh]

Irreducible complexity is used to prove ID by stating that things could not have come about on their own through mutation and need a designer to guide them. If this is so, then then designer must be irreducibly complex. If the designer is irreducibly complex, then who designed the designer?

Re:Is The U.S. Becoming Anti-Science?

[igny]

Any other stupid questions?!

Can Bush create a stone so heavy that he can't lift it?

Re:Is The U.S. Becoming Anti-Science?

[Anonymous Coward]

How about +5 Left and -5 Right.

Silly boy, The intellegent designer did it.

[spaceturtle]

Look, as computer scientists we know that people (i.e. designers) write viruses, they don't just "evolve". So clearly, the existence of viruses proves that God, the Original Intelligent Designer, must exist ;)

Re:Silly boy, The intellegent designer did it.

[MrKahuna]

So you're saying that by writing a virus we can get closer to God! That ought to make for interestingly named viruses. Forget CodeRed, watch out for that Holy Moses virus, it'll set your hard drive on fire and your computer will start speaking in tongues ( err, wait... mine does the latter already... darn BSOD). I had visions of the Virgin Mary too but it was just immaculate reception by my wireless card as I went past an unsecured hot-spot.

Re:Is The U.S. Becoming Anti-Science?

[rubycodez]

and more importantly, it's surrounded by tasty meat.

Re:Anti-Scientists are NOT a Majority

[Broken_Ladder]

Atheists do not and never will fight against "God".

that's where you're wrong. i certainly do fight against theism, and irrational beliefs in general. i will fight it with my dying breath, even if it comes to burning down churches. you put me in power as dictator right now, i'll sterilize every last person i can find who has claimed theistic belief.

Supply Side Jesus!

[Grendel Drago]

Pfft. Clearly you're confusing real piety with the gospel of Supply Side Jesus.

(And it's "Reagan". Once is a typo; the second time, I gotta whip out my inverted-lowercase e adhesive badge.)

Re:Is The U.S. Becoming Anti-Science?

[killjoe]

I don't speak from experience but I bet human meat is even more tasty. Nice and fatty, tender, and soft.

Re:Anti-Scientists are NOT a Majority

[torokun]

I fought him yesterday, and I actually won. I ended up with a nice spaghetti dinner.