Sunday, January 29, 2012

Religious Conservatives Track Record on Science

As I was browsing wikipedia - and finding information to rebut a global warming denier - a conservative... something struck me.

This passage:
"During the period of religious conservatism brought about by the Reformation and Counter-ReformationGalileo Galilei unveiled his new science of motion."  


The Father of the modern scientific method faced more than a little unfriendly opposition when he said that the Earth orbited the Sun. 


Mostly from religious conservatives.  People who felt that God made it a different way, even though science provided evidence to the contrary.


How far would those religious conservatives hold onto their beliefs? 


And how wrong did they prove to be?


Well, here is a close-up video of the sun - from a NASA spacecraft - observing solar flares. 
Well, we've now been to the sun.  Does that prove anything?


Does the Earth orbit the Sun?


So - here is my question.


The religious right... aka "religious conservatives," holds a lot of other beliefs. 


What is their track record?  


Consider that they may vehemently oppose something that changes the view of the status quo that they are trying to conserve. 


What have they opposed? 


Well... many believe being gay is wrong... and a choice.  
Despite 1 out of 13 squirrels being gay... and hundreds and hundreds of species including gay members in their populations.


But, maybe that is not good enough. 


This is one example of brain scans showing gay and straight people's brains in comparrison.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080617151845.htm

They blow off things like evolution and climate change as, "theory."

Gravity is also a theory.  I think they should go see if they disprove it because it is a theory.
Perhaps they should jump off a building and see if something that is a, "theory," can hold water.

So, as conservatives continue to put their perspective forwards on climate change and other issues... I wonder... what is their track record?

What evidence do we have that they have any credibility?

What examples do you think of?

Benjamin Corey Feinblum
Ps.  I am Religious... and somewhat conservative... but, my religion does not ask me to deny science.  It asks me to use the brain that I have to understand the world around me.  Use the gift that makes man different from all other species - insight.





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