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There was a big blogging conference last week in Las Vegas. It was called YearlyKos and it was sponsored by one of the largest liberal bloggers: DailyKos. You can read more about the conference here.
But what caught my attention was an address given by retired General Wesley Clark on science and faith to the Science bloggers. After talking about his own experience growing up in the south and being turned on to science by his school teachers and the rapid advances made in science because of the space race, he turned his attention to the current political atmosphere about science:
“And today, I’m sorry to tell you, all that is at risk today. And the distinguished members of this panel are going into it in a lot more detain than than I will. They’ll tell you about the cutbacks in basic research and science. They’ll talk to you about the politicization of scientific findings, whether it’s in the federal Food and Drug Administration or the office of the White House Science Advisor, whether it has to do with the Morning After pill or stem cell research or global warming. It is shocking that the political party that professed to believe in freedom and liberty is trying to impose its political will on the province of science. It’s absolutely turned its own principles on its head in the purest demonstration of political hypocrisy you can see in the American stage today. And that is the Republican Party.
(applause)
“But what particularly worries me is the conflict that’s out there between faith and reason, between faith and science. There’s nothing new about this conflict. It’s as old as Christianity and even older. It’s always been there as men sought to reason their way into an understanding of the world around us, and women sought to reason their way into an understanding of the world around us, and others sought to prevent it. Whether it was the Copernican theory of the solar system or Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas in trying to merge faith and reason, it’s a long-standing conflict.
-snip
“As a Christian, I don’t think there is anything more disheartening than seeing the conservative Christian attack on science. In one way or another it is happening in every school district in the country. And it is crippling the minds of children, hurting the competitiveness of our country, and making a travesty of the faith tradition I belong to and care about. And a special pox on the shameless politicians who pander to it.”
Update: Someone sent me an e-mail regarding my very last sentence about shameless politicians wondering if I was referring to Wesley Clark. He is most definitely not who I had in mind. I was referring to the kind of politician who is smart enough to be a physician or surgeon but desperate enough to be President that they will pander to right wing Christians even if it means they have to pretend that the science they use to save lives doesn’t exist.
Wes Clark has been talking about the importance of science to modern society and our national character. WesPAC has the transcript of General Clark’s remarks on science to the YearlyKos convention:
“You know, science is the lifeblood of our civilization. It’s what has made the modern world possible. It’s why the planet supports six billion people and not several hundred million. it’s what has distinguished this modern age. It has tremendous benefits, and that carries with it tremendous responsibilities and risks.
“Religious conservatives who claim that our country was built on the piety of our founding fathers are missing half of the story. Our founders displayed more than their share of pragmatic curiousity that is the scientific method:
“We were pragmatists by nature…Ben Franklin was our first, one of our first notable scientists, taming lightning in a bottle brought down from the sky, understanding for the first time, proving that lightning was this magical thing called electricity.”
Wesley Clark touts science at YearlyKos
A panel of Internet writers and a former Democratic presidential candidate ripped the Republican Party on Friday for undermining America’s historic relationship to science and engineering.
Speaking at YearlyKos, a conference of liberal bloggers, retired Army general and former presidential candidate Wesley Clark told about 150 people that science “is the lifeblood of our civilization. It is what has made our modern lifestyle possible.”
Electric lighting, lasers, penicillin, the uses of petroleum, and key advances in genetics and nuclear science all come from the United States, Clark said. He noted that he was in ninth grade at the time the United States was embarrassed by the success of the Soviet Union’s Sputnik satellite in 1957. Concern over the perceived Soviet dominance in the space race made the United States “real serious about science and technology.”
“Science and math were the lifeblood of competing with the godless Soviet empire,” Clark said. Investments in science, engineering and education paid off decades later with computers and other technologies, but those advancements are threatened by funding cuts and the “politicization of science.”
“It is shocking ¦ the purest demonstration of political hypocrisy you can see today,” said Clark, who is considered a 2008 presidential candidate.
Battles are waging on the issues of global warming, stem cell research and evolution, he said. Clark, who said he believes in a Supreme Being or creator, said teachers are being forced to throw the key biological concept of evolution from public classrooms: “Across America, well-meaning teachers are running scared.”
