Is U.S. becoming hostile to science?

[n2doc]

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) -- A bitter debate about how to teach evolution in U.S. high schools is prompting a crisis of confidence among scientists, and some senior academics warn that science itself is under assault.

"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.

Brown University biologist Kenneth Miller believes the rhetoric of the anti-evolution movement has had the effect of driving a wedge between a large proportion of the population who follow fundamentalist Christianity and science.

"It is alienating young people from science. It basically tells them that the scientific community is not to be trusted and you would have to abandon your principles of faith to become a scientist, which is not at all true," he said


More:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/science/10/28/science.debate.reut/index.html

So..in order to save science we now have to teach crap?

[Spinzonner]

1. How about just ignorant and lazy ?

[The River]

2. It's Fear more than Hostility

Just as light puts an end to physical darkness,
Science puts an end to the intellectual darkness of
superstition and myth.
I think that the "true believers" know that instinctively.
It's the same with Education. Educated people are more likely
to see through their fearful 10th century beliefs.

There was a time when you HAD to be a true believer or suffer
the sword. Over the centuries our belief sytem has evolved, if ever so slowly, away from religion. Just as the Rock & Tree worshippers have al but vanished, someday their(fundy) old testement god of vengence will be replaced by the more loving new testement god.
I think we will eventually evolve beyond the need for any external God.
Thats when it will get interesting.

[icymist]

3. The words of a grocery store manager I worked for sums it up for me:

This was in a Central Illinois store in the mid eighties where I worked. He was a strict Pentecostal and often disagreed with any forward, progressive thinking; "You don't have the right to prove to me that things aren't what I believe them to be!" was a common phrase of his. Normally, I believe in a 'live and let live' outlook toward such people except that now, the dogmatic superstitious wish to force upon the rest of us that their literalistic interpretations of antiquated scriptures be portrayed as the only truth.

[Angry Girl]

4. It's the dumbing down of America

# The United States ranked 28th out of 40 countries in mathematical literacy (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004).

# Twenty percent of Americans think the sun orbits the earth. Seventeen percent believe the earth revolves around the sun once a day (The Week, Jan. 7, 2005).

# Our workers are so ignorant and lack so many basic skills that American businesses spend $30 billion a year on remedial training (NYT, Dec. 12, 2004). No wonder they relocate elsewhere!

# "The European Union leads the U.S. in...the number of science and engineering graduates; public research and development (R&D) expenditures; and new capital raised" (The European Dream, p.70).

and more here...
http://citypages.com/databank/26/1264/article12985.asp

The Dumbing Down of America
PC Magazine, April, 2005 by John C. Dvorak
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdpcm/is_200504/ai_n13616634

The book was printed in 2000 but the stuff still appears to be valid...
http://www.deliberatedumbingdown.com/pages/book.htm

[NNadir]

5. The answer of course involves bears, shitting and woods.