More Science Goodness

On the heels of Monday's post, I seem to be on a rant about stupidity when it comes to science:

[Credit here]

Hope this cartoon from Daily Kos is readable.  I am still having tons of trouble adjusting to the iMac world.  Nothing seems intuitive after decades of living in the PC world.

Bible Math...and Ultrarunning

Thanks once again to the ever-interesting Boing Boing--a wonderfully cool and geeky site, which you MUST check out a couple times a week--a great cartoon about the pitfalls of using the Bible as a literal science text:

[click to enlarge]

 

 

Faith and science need not be incompatible, you just have to be sensible about the domains and scope of each.

 

I really ought to check out Biblical distances to see whether I can gain any advantage in Ultrarunning...say, only covering 28 miles and calling it a 50K.

 

 

 

 

 

My Goat is Gotten

Seems there's been some ill-considered comments by Florida Senator Marco Rubio, supposedly one of the Republican party's rising stars, about the age of the earth.  Via Alex Knapp at Forbes:

Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who many political observers think has a strong shot to be a 2016 Presidential candidate, just finished a lengthy interview with GQ that you can read here. One thing that struck my interest here, as someone who often reports on science, was Rubio’s answer when he was asked the question, “How old do you think the Earth is.”

In response, Rubio told GQ that, “I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.”
 

Matthew Francis at Galileo's Pendulum weighs in on the age of the earth and Rubio:

I also get that in today’s Republican Party, there is a conflict between secular conservatism—which cares little for theological debates, in favor of and a powerful Christian fundamentalist element that won’t throw support behind anyone who doesn’t take a literalist view of Genesis. You’re trying to have it both ways.

However, the age of Earth is not a matter of opinion, so there is no “middle ground” for discussion. Whether there’s a dispute among theologians or not is, frankly, irrelevant. The age of Earth (4.54 billion years, which you find if you type “age of earth” into Google search) is not a controversial issue, and hasn’t been for many years in the scientific community.
 

And (going back to Alex Knapp) here's why what Rubio says and thinks matters:

This doesn’t mean that our representatives to the Congress and to the Senate should be scientific experts. But if they hold ideas about the world around us that are fundamentally at odds with scientific evidence, then that will ultimately infringe on their ability to make reasoned judgments about a host of issues where the economy touches technology. And that could end up harming the economy as a whole.
 

In other words, Rubio (to use but one example) is saying:

1. I believe X is true, as so pronounced by my faith. 

2. The premise Y--although universally accepted within the scientific community--is at odds with my belief in X.

3.  Therefore, since X must be true, that means that Y is false.

When I see scientific denialism, my goat is gotten. Nothing drives me nuts more than simply denying facts that conflict with one's paradigms. My

We Love Science...He Doesn't

Via Yahoo News, a recent story about one of our elected Congresspersons:

Georgia Rep. Paul Broun said in videotaped remarks that evolution, embryology and the Big Bang theory are "lies straight from the pit of hell" meant to convince people that they do not need a savior.

The Republican lawmaker made those comments during a speech Sept. 27 at a sportsman's banquet at Liberty Baptist Church in Hartwell. Broun, a medical doctor, is running for re-election in November unopposed by Democrats.

"God's word is true," Broun said, according to a video posted on the church's website. "I've come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution and embryology and Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell. And it's lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior."

Broun also said that he believes the Earth is about 9,000 years old and that it was made in six days. Those beliefs are held by fundamentalist Christians who believe the creation accounts in the Bible to be literally true.
 

I see room for people of faith to also have a belief in scientific fact.  But with Rep. Broun, it's like he's shaking his head with his fingers in his ears saying "La la la la la la I can't hear you la la la la la la..."  He lives in a world where if the facts are inconvenient you either ignore them, or double down and outright condemn them, in this case calling them "lies straight from the pit of hell."

This joker sits on the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology.

Also, in case you missed it back on 4 Jan 2012, see my post about the age of the Earth.  It's short, has this cool photo of the back side of the moon, and scientifically and unarguably refutes the notion of a very young earth.

[image credit Astronomy Picture of the Day]

 

 

 

Mr. Jefferson and Science

As usual, one of the fathers of our country had it right (via Pharyngula):

I think by far the most important bill in our whole code is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised, for the preservation of freedom and happiness…Preach, my dear Sir, a crusade against ignorance; establish & improve the law for educating the common people. Let our countrymen know that the people alone can protect us against these evils [tyranny, oppression, etc.] and that the tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance.

 

When You Vote Tomorrow....Vote Science

From one of my favs, Bad Astromomy:

Science is our best method for figuring out reality. It provides us with a method to rigorously test our ideas to find out if they are right or wrong. We can discard bad ideas, keep good ones, and that way get ever-closer to being able to understand what the Universe is actually trying to tell us.

Scientists are necessarily conservative when it comes to consensus. It takes years, decades, of testing ideas to build an agreement on what’s what. At first, many will argue against it, but eventually, as evidence piles up, the scientists will come to terms with the new idea, and use it as the default position.

When it comes to global warming, that consensus has been built. The vast majority — and I do mean vast — of climate scientists agree that the Earth is warming, and while evidence is still coming in, most of these scientists agree warming is due to human causes.

OK, so far so good, we know that scientists believe in the fact of, and the seriousness of, man-made global warming.  Let's translate that into, "Now what do we do about it?" as in, let's look to our elected representatives to have our back on this.  After all, we are talking about the fate of human life on this planet, right?

So what does it say when every single Republican candidate running for Senate this autumn is either a denier of man-made global warming or disputing facts about it we know are true?

It’s actually quite amazing. 37 seats are up for grabs in November, and of the 37 Republicans (and their Frankensteinian offspring, the Tea Party) running for these seats, not a single one supports taking any action on global warming.

Don't any of these people have children or grandchildren?  I guess since party loyalty and discipline are evidently of paramount importance, the best we probably can expect is a unanimous "We're sorry" ...well after the point of no return has been reached for the planet.