time to stop blaming scientists for Americans
canada goose store adults) on a canada goose factory outlet number of contentious topics related to science. adults and 3,748 members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), asking them, as the article notes, questions about their views on scientific achievement, education, and controversial issues. The good news is that half of the American public now acceptsthe scientifically uncontested fact that our species is warming up the planet. The bad news is that this is only half, and a substantial number of laypeople (and fewer scientists, though still to many) continue tofavor more offshore drilling and more fracking. That, of course, just leads to more global warming. canada goose store
Regarding evolution, the 65% figure that have evolved over time at first seems to contradict the most recent Gallup poll, shown below, which shows that only 19% of Americans canada goose outlet uk think that humans evolved naturalistically. However, an additional 31% think that humans evolved, but that our evolution was guided by God a stand that I see as a form of canada goose outlet in vancouver creationism, since it posits that humanevolution involved divine intervention. canada goose kensington parka uk The 31% and 19% canada goose outlet toronto add up to 50% who accept human evolution (be it God guided or naturalistice), but that 15% lower thanthe poll above. The disparitymay reflecta difference in the way the question was asked.
As usual with these articles, the National Geographic piece blames this opinion gap on scientists, of course (my emphasis in the following):
On most other scientific matters, a widespread gap splits the experts from everyday folks, pollsters at thePew Research Center reportedThursday [Jan.]. The rift persists in long running issues such as the causes of climate change and the safety of nuclear power. And it crops up in the news today in battles over outbreaks of measles tied to children who haven been vaccinated.
Scientists say this opinion gap points to shortcomings in their own skills at reaching out to the public and to deficits in science education. education as average at best.
[Alan Leshner, AAAS head]argues that scientists can better sway public opinion by making the case for science in smaller venues, such as retirement communities or library groups, instead of the traditional canada goose outlet price lecture hall. is important that the public understands that scientists are people too. I appreciate the need for more and better science education after all, I spent my career teaching and writing popular canada goose victoria parka outlet science it all too easy to pin the gap on scientists and teachers. Yet thepoll described above wastaken not of students, but of adults: adults who live in a culture where it dead easy to find information about evolution, vaccination, global warming, and GMOs. And canada goose parka outlet if your responseis thatif onegoes online, you find plenty of websites that tout creationism and global warming denialism, so who to judge, well, is the public really soclueless that it doesn know to trust in reputable scientists rather than questionable websites?canada goose factory sale We living in the age of Neil deGrasse Tyson, David Attenborough, Stephen Jay Gould, Genie Scott, canada goose outlet new york city Richard Dawkins, and hundreds of other people dedicated to informing the public about science. Can we really argue that we need to go to retirement communities and library groups to effect a sea change? I done such thingsto promote evolution, and the results have beenmeager (this is why I prefer http://www.canadagoosejacketoutlett.com to write books, which people can digest and ponder). canada goose factory sale
uk canada goose outlet It time to consider that political, ideological, and religious worldviews actually immunize people against science, and that trying to push science through cracks in those walls won work. I fully convinced, for instance, that you can get Americans to accept evolution by simply teaching evolution. By the time that kids are old enough to learn about it, many of them havealready been brainwashed to rejectit by religious parents. If we canada goose jacket outlet sale want most Americans to accept evolution, as do most Europeans, we must loosen the grip canada goose outlet locations in toronto of religion on society. (That, of course, may require, as Marx noted, eliminating the social conditions that promote religiosity.)After all, as I shown before, there a strong negative correlation between the religiosity of a society. Here a figure and its caption from a paper I wrote three years ago in Evolution: uk canada goose outlet
Canada Goose Jackets Figure 1. The canada goose stockists uk correlation between belief in God and acceptance of human evolution among 34 countries. Acceptance of evolution is based on the survey of Miller et al. (2006), who asked people whether they agreed with the statement, “Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals.” (Original data provided by J. D. Miller.) “Belief in God” comes from the Eurobarometer survey of 2005, except for data for Japan from (Zuckerman 2007) and for the United States from a Gallup Poll (2011b). “US” is the point for the United States. The correlation is 0.608 (P= 0.0001), the equation of the least squares regression line is y= 81.47 0.33x. states: the top ten states whose residents most readilyaccept evolution are all among the least religious, while the bottom ten are the most religious. Here a figure I made from several sources. States are ranked from highest to lowest in the proportion of people accepting human evolution. Arrows show the ten least religious states (blue) and most religious states (red). (Date for the other 30 states weren available.) Note the lack of overlap: Canada Goose Jackets
canadian goose jacket Anti vaxers and anti GMOs, too, are often motivated not by ignorance of the facts (which, after all, are readily canada goose outlet available), but by what they want to believe. Sociological studies, particularly one done by Dan Kahan, have shown that ideology and are powerful immunizers against facts, and that those conservatives who are more aware of the scientific consensus on issues like evolution and global warming are in fact more resistant to accepting the consensus view!That itself implies that the problem isn ignorance of science, canada goose outlet paypal but ideological and religious immunization against science. canadian goose jacket
Canada Goose sale So, like Rod Serling, I offer, for you consideration, this proposal: scientist are doing a damn good job promoting their findings and raising public awareness. Yes, many scientists don do and even those who do are sometimes bad at it. After all, it a hell of a lot easier to just beat our breasts and blame ourselves. But thefault, dear Americans, isnot in our dearth of scientific stars, like Tyson and Dawkins, but in our faiths and ideologies. Canada Goose sale
By definition, there canada goose outlet shop is no effective persuasion against someone who is convinced of their religious beliefs.
canada goose uk black friday Generations of missionaries would disagree with you. Experience has long shown that stringing up a series of canada goose outlet online uk people who refuse to convert from their deeply held religion to your (the missionary) deeply held religion has been an effective technique. The instruction this! increases it effectiveness when punctuated by people dancing on the end of a rope, or being peeled by inch by inch. canada goose uk black friday
buy canada goose jacket cheap There is nothing new about Isis. They just using missionary techniques which have been canada goose clothing uk left on the shelf for maybe a century or so. (I have a feeling closer to half a century, but my braincell isn bringing exact cases to mind, just a nagging at the back of the memory.) buy canada goose jacket cheap
Canada Goose Online the fault, dear Americans, is not in our dearth of scientific stars, like Tyson and Dawkins, but in our faiths and ideologies. Mr. Tyson has gone out of his way to give public school teachers (approx. 80% female, IIRC) grief, specifically in a 2009 issue of The Humanist. (I can dig it out of the magazine pile to more specifically document it.) He ought to go teach science to the fifth grade class I attempted to teach today. Though I had a good, solid core of on task, self disciplined students, I had to stop every 2 3 minutes to redirect/refocus certain students who were making it canada goose outlet buffalo rough on their classmates with their misbehavior,getting hit in the back of the head with a pencil eraser for my trouble. As a management technique which can be observed in not a few online videos would canada goose outlet edmonton Mr. pop canada goose outlet store uk culture. Canada Goose Online
Anti vaxers and canada goose outlet store quebec anti GMOs, too, are often motivated not by ignorance of the facts (which, after all, are readily available), but by what they want to believe.
canada goose That the true heart of the faith v fact struggle, and the real is / ought dichotomy. canada goose
canada goose clearance sale When people acknowledge that the world is what it actually is instead of insisting that it must really be what it should be, then we can start to make progress. canada goose clearance sale
canada goose black friday sale Yes, sure. Your life would be without meaning if Jesus didn love you, and Jesus would never want you to contaminate your precious bodily fluids with the DNA chemical. And that really is the world as you think it is right and proper for the world to be. canada goose black friday sale
uk canada goose But tough shit. It not the way the world actually is, and no amount of insisting that the world has no right being different from your idealized conception of it is going to change it. uk canada goose
canada goose uk outlet Yep. Dogmatic lefty crap. My aunt is part of it. She is the one who told me that mushrooms cure cancer. She also told me scientists are paid canada goose outlet vip to keep quiet by big pharma. Jesus! I actually took the time to explain the peer review process to her and the scientific method (to show why cancer treatments work and mushroom cures is BS) and I also asked her how could scientists the world over and from multiple generations actually participate in such a conspiracy when Watergate couldn even work out and the whole Wakefield study was exposed. canada goose uk outlet
canada goose coats on sale Now canada goose outlet 80 off she just says those stupid things behind my back. I know she didn want to believe what I was proving to her was true. canada goose coats on sale
Canada Goose online While I recognize that fracking has canada goose outlet washington dc its issues, but this would canada goose outlet legit appear to be one tangible, environmental benefit of the practice. Canada Goose online
canada goose uk shop While producing a certain amount of energy canada goose womens outlet by burning gas produced a lower tonnage of CO2, that isn reducing coal production and burning. Coal mines in America which used to ship their coal a hundred miles up the (rail) road to a power plant are now shipping the same tonnages in the opposite direction to a port, where the canada goose outlet seattle coal is then exported to be burned abroad canada goose uk shop.