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I think the answer to the OP is yes.National Centre for Science Education BlogThe billTennessee has just completed legislative process to enact law to encourage/allow teachers to treat evolution/chemical basis for life etc as unsettled questions - and to teach the debate! Of course, it isn't a religiously inspired law (my keyboard started smoking with the sheer chutzpah of typing that).Here is a very balanced letter from the AAAS written prior the bill passing into law
The point is that science, technology, medicine, and etc, are all intertwined. If a person believes in "progress", then they believe in "science".
Yes - I'm afraid the outlook is bleak. The sad thing is that the US is based on the notion of keeping religion out of government, but there is a huge push to reverse that position. I'm thinking of starting a campaign to demand that, if the goverment gets into religion, we should re-establish the monarchy in the US while we are at it! (I'm not serious of course, but it might be a good talking point to get people's attention - I might just put in the local paper, although I'm a bit concerned about people showing up outside my house with pitchforks and the like.)
Unfortunately, prejudices come into play with voting for candidates.
I'm finding these numbers hard to accept. History does not seem to back up this data. We have had, what, one Catholic President in 200 years. One Black President. A woman can't even get elected VP much less President.
I'm thinking of starting a campaign to demand that, if the goverment gets into religion, we should re-establish the monarchy in the US while we are at it!
Graham said "I would not be too hard on people in general - there are lots of forces at work here and much is down to human nature."Graham I would agree with you if not for one thing. The percentage of people who DO believe in pseudo "sciences". Everything from Alien visitations to astrology, psychic powers to seances. A significantly larger number of people believe in the fake sciences than the real sciences. Again, I have to believe there is a reason for that.In one of Carl Sagan's books I recall a story he told. He was taking a taxi and was having a chat with the driver. The driver recognized Sagan and asked if he could have a talk with him about science. Sagan, of course, agreed. Without going into a long story, essentially this taxi driver talked about nothing but pseudo sciences. Sagan patiently explained the fallacies in each one and by the time he left the cab, the driver was rather crestfallen and frustrated.Sagan pointed out that here was a guy who had an inquiring mind and wanted to learn. But all he had ever heard about was pseudo science. Sagan concluded that science had failed that man.I will never forget that story as it seems to be a direct correlation to the lack of trust in science to this day.