Ben Carson: Religion is needed to interpret science because ‘maybe it’s just propaganda’

[bananas]

30. Unfortunately, a lot of science is propaganda.

For example, tobacco industry scientists routinely skewed their results:

http://www.ucsf.edu/news/2012/01/11261/tobacco-company-misrepresented-danger-cigarettes-study-finds

Tobacco Company Misrepresented Danger from Cigarettes, Study Finds
Toxicity Levels Obscured, Increasing Risks of Heart Disease, Cancer
By Elizabeth Fernandez on January 06, 2012 | Email | Print

A new UCSF analysis of tobacco industry documents shows that Philip Morris USA manipulated data on the effects of additives in cigarettes, including menthol, obscuring actual toxicity levels and increasing the risk of heart, cancer and other diseases for smokers.

Tobacco industry information can’t be taken at face value, the researchers conclude. They say their work provides evidence that hundreds of additives, including menthol, should be eliminated from cigarettes on public health grounds.

<snip>

They also found, after obtaining evidence that additives increased toxicity, that tobacco scientists adjusted the protocol for presenting their results in a way that obscured these increases.

<snip>

The results of “Project MIX” were first published as four papers in a 2002 edition of Food and Chemical Toxicology, a journal whose editor and many members of its editorial board had financial ties to the tobacco industry. While Philip Morris was trying to get the papers published, the company scientist who led Project Mix sent an email to a colleague describing the peer review process as an inside job.

<snip>

You see the same thing with the nuclear industry, pharmaceutical industry, fossil fuel industries, etc.

That's why watchdog groups like CMD, UCS, and others are so important.

http://www.sourcewatch.org/
http://www.ucsusa.org/
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2012/04/beyond-coal-plant-activism