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Our Politicians, Our Selves
By bk | June 11, 2007 18:35
Seed magazine has an excellent opinion piece by Jerry Coyne on the poor performance of presidential candidates when it comes to basic biology. Following the Brownback’s abject failure of intellect as well as others, it seems we certainly need some reason and knowledge in the debate.
One could be excused for excusing this behavior out of politicians, claiming an appeal to the majority, and that is exactly the problem. If they are suppressing their personal beliefs in favor of what they think is the majority, they are nothing but panderers and liars, and if they really believe in creationism - are they fit to lead this country in the second decade of the 21st century?
Coyne points out that
Suppose we asked a group of Presidential candidates if they believed in the existence of atoms, and a third of them said “no”? That would be a truly appalling show of scientific illiteracy, would it not? And all the more shocking coming from those who aspire to run a technologically sophisticated nation.
And why does it matter? Do politicians need to understand science? They are running a country, not a college or a laboratory. Coyne again points out an important fact:
As science becomes more and more important in dealing with the world’s problems, Americans are falling farther and farther behind in scientific literacy. Among citizens of industrialized nations, Americans rank near the bottom in their understanding of math and science.
Science and technology are important to the US economy and continued growth. We don’t need to go too far back to find the impact of presidential scientific ignorance. As long as presidents are scientifically illiterate and fail to have to intelligent non-theist scientific advisers, we will continue to sacrifice progress, international respect and lives.
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