What does he mean by 'fear of science'? --- I've never known of anyone that feared science.
What does he mean by 'damaging our democracy'? --- Firstly, if Dook is an American, he should know that we are not a 'democracy' --- we were founded a Republic. Republic was defined by Abraham Lincoln as government of the people, for the people by the people. It was FDR that first started referring to America as a Democracy and it caught on, but that is not correct, see Article 4, section 4 of the U.S Constitution.
And he talks about 'excessive tolerance of ignorant lying about science' --- well yes that is happening. And that is starting to be addressed. The Heidelberg Appeal is a good example, which says in part:
"We are, however, worried at the dawn of the twenty-first century, at the emergence of an irrational ideology which is opposed to scientific and industrial progress and impedes economic and social development."
Man-made Global Warming is certainty an irrational ideology.
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Fraud in science is taken very seriously, and this largely precludes scientists being "bought". When you publish, you have to include enough information in the paper to verify the results and interpretation. Nothings perfect and things get overlooked or mistaken, but it's still the most honest field of human endeavor.
As far as AGW, the Climategate people were exonerated of wrongdoing by three separate commissions. For people to continue to use it as evidence of scientific fraud is incorrect.
The main problem that people have with science is applying a conclusion outside of the experimental conditions in which it was generated. Lying about science isn't the same as being ignorant of science (although they may generate the same results). And the biggest damage to our system of government is people that vote with simplistic ideology and not with facts.
DK
Yes! A representative type of Government that unfortunately has a media-bias controlled by liberal and financial ELITES. The simple conservative type of representative that is elected should be applauded. The simple conservative is always bad-mouthed by liberals, yet the liberal media is run by the financial ELITES who are looking to keep their own financial status in life and don't particularly care about party affiliation. Simple conservatism is what our Founding Fathers based our Government on.
The "Al Gore Science" has been exposed, but the media still seems to be perpetuating this Global Warming Science. When the temperatures finally fall through the bottom of climate model projections, will they still get another chance to prove CO2 warming? I'd say that there is no doubt about it. It's good to have true skeptics like you, Maxx, Ian, Pindar, flossie, Mike, Ottawa Mike, etc... to keep these people honest.
Keep hammering away!
I don't fear science, but I also know that it's not be trusted. Besides being often just plain wrong, scientist often deliberately skew their data to support the results wanted by the person paying for the research! Science is always portrayed as being something noble and altruistic, the pursuit of knowledge for the sake of knowledge alone! The truth is that scientists need to pay the bills just like the rest of us and they whore out that knowledge to the highest bidder! Money talks and often the knowledge is suppressed! Just look at electric cars. They have been around since the beginning, but for how many decades have the oil companies been able to suppress that technology?
I think what he means is that some people are either too ignorant or too stupid to understand science, so they fear it. Those people end up believing the word of hucksters like Gore and Suzuki, without examining the data or thinking for themselves. How else could Gore's movie win an academy award when it is filled with so many blatant lies. When people stop being critical and simply follow along like sheep, democracy is damaged because those in power begin to erode the rights afforded us under a democratic system.
Well, lets parse this. Ignorant lying is a contradiction.
Now, we are asked fear and tolerance of ignorant lying. If there is no ignorant lying then tolerance of it can have no effect. Since the second part is no, and we were asked 'and' so both parts must be true, that means the answer must be NO.
I don't think so. Al Gore lies about science and although his film 'An Inconvenient Truth' has contributed greatly to the CAGW scare and we spend billions of dollars on something that isn't a problem, we still get to vote people in and out every 4 years (in Canada at least).
getting science news from the average media outlet is often a mixed blessing. the people doing the articles often don,t due adequate research on whatever subject is at hand. it,s often more about sensationalism than science. any coverage of nuclear power generation is an example. instead of honest science; we get "end of world" commentary. ignorance is always damaging. basing important political decisions on misinformation hurts us all.
I am opening this up for all. (I don't block people.)
I live in the US. So nothing can damage my Democracy. The US, as every informed citizen knows, is governed by a Republic form of government, not a Democratic.
