The bizzaro world of Conservative science denial

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I don't think these people got a full cup of raisins in their cereal bowl


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/2 ... =Education

Bet they failed science in school.

America is a strange place. I wonder if they have a committee of illiterate people in charge of the English language syllabus; innumerate people in charge of the Math syllabus and so on...

Conservative science Leeches do work to pull out toxic material,but you can't even get them at the VA these days.And you have to wait weeks for a good bloodletting.

Some of these Conservative politicians on these science committees almost refer to themselves as "scientists" because they have some degree in some subject that has science attached to the program but has nothing to do with the physical sciences

Conservatives seem to think just because they believe something, that makes it so. This ranges from denial of climate change and evolution to the notion of the inequality of the races.

I said it to the Catholics that I grew up around, and I'll say it to academia: The biggest threats to any culture come from people perverting it from the inside, not outside "deniers." They've been just as bad as Cathlolics who bemoan atheists while their own membership lives high-on-the-hog at the expense of the poor, and their priests bugger boys in the confessional. Just a few examples:

1: Academicians don't live by their own principles - There is no evidence to show that college education improves students' performance. It sounds as though it should be true, but that's not science. Students come from more affluent backgrounds than non-students, and have more opportunity when they graduate. You can't compare non-comparable samples and then use the (unsurprising) difference between them to claim proof of a causal relationship.

2: Their world-view wouldn't hold up to systematic scrutiny any better than the Bible's multiple creation stories - Parts of the psych literature assume that lack of empathy is a sign of burn-out, while others assume that it's caused by genes. No evidence is ever given to show why one explanation is better than the other in the case at hand.

3: Even when they know how to follow their own rules, they're spotty about it - You can't demand that other people go by the numbers (your numbers, that is) on global warming when you refuse to go by the numbers on the safety of nuclear power.

The real hallmark of religion is refusal to change in response to data, of which #3 is a fine example.

It must be very sad for a scientist to come to speak to politicians only to find out they are the dumbest audience he's ever had. He's probably happy to get back to university to speak to people who are actually interested in science.

It's all Gingrich fault.

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