Science seems to have become more and more like social science in recent years in the sense that ideology affects it. Whether it is the debate about Darwinism or about global warming, it seems that your views on science depend on your ideology. George Will wrote on Sunday that, “Suppose the Earth is warming and suppose the warming is caused by human activity. Are we sure there will be proportionate benefits from whatever climate change can be purchased at the cost of slowing economic growth and spending trillions? Are we sure the consequences of climate change -- remember, a thick sheet of ice once covered the Midwest-- must be bad? Or has the science-journalism complex decided that debate about these questions, too, is "over"?” The question after reading his article is whether science is a matter of point of view. If it is, then it means that ideology bridges a gap between people that is unbridgeable. That is worrisome because if we cannot agree on science, on math and on reality, then togetherness becomes impossible.
Perhaps it's not scientists who are Ideologues, but opinion columnists (and bloggers of course…).
Posted by: Theo | Wednesday, 05 April 2006 at 10:38 AM