As new study by the respected Pew Research Center shows a striking disconnect between the views of scientists and the public on basic scientific questions. In eight out of thirteen science-oriented issues, there was a 20 percentage point or more difference between the two groups on issues like genetically modified food, global warming, or evolution.
Take the question of whether it is safe to eat genetically modified foods. Some 88 percent of scientists felt that such foods are safe while only 37 percent of the public held this view. Fifty-seven percent of the public viewed genetically modified foods as unsafe.
The figures on evolution are equally amazing. Some ninety-eight (98) percent of scientists found the evidence clear that humans evolved over time. Indeed, there is yet another discovery supplying a link in that evolution this week (and again offering obvious proof that the Earth is far old than a few thousand years old). However, only 65 percent of the public believe in evolution.
Another question looked at whether those polled views foods grown with pesticides to be safe. Sixty-eight (68) percent of scientists said yes while only 28 percent of the general public agreed.
Another topical question (given the measles outbreak this month) was whether mandatory childhood shots are valid: 86 percent of the scientists favored such shots while only 68 percent of the public did.
On global warming, 87 percent of scientists said global warming is mostly due to human activity while only 50 percent of the public agreed.
It is worth noting however that the numbers appear to be shifting in favor of science on evolution, global warming and the like. It will be interesting to see how fast this gap closes in the coming years.
I’ve written it before, the scariest words should be, “The govt. has told us the science is settled”.
Nick, I agree. As an ME, I can’t tell you how many times I have come across a design that could be done better but is left alone because it works. In engineering we always remind ourselves that the devil you know is better than the one you don’t.
Pew conducted a similar poll in 2009. In both 2009 and this 2015 survey, the sample of scientists are members of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The 2009 survey asked scientists to identify their political party affiliation. 6% identified as Republican. 55% as Democrat. 32% Independent. 4% Other/none. (That sums to 97%, which is sorta unscience-y, but whatever.). For “leaners” the breakdown is 12% Republican and 81% Democrat. See Section 4 at this link:
http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/section-4-scientists-politics-and-religion/
Assuming the sample was selected randomly and the membership composition of the AAAS has not changed materially since 2009, then we can conclude that the AAAS is an organization composed overwhelmingly of scientists who identify as Democrats and overwhelmingly lean Democrat in their voting preferences.
So the poll reflects positions of mostly Democrats who are scientists vs the public.
Isaac, The vigilance of which I spoke was not over keeping an inventory of items so as to not leave one behind. I worked med mal cases for decades. That is all too common. This was a neurosurgeon w/ whom I was discussing the issue. The vigilance is having all the appliances in proper place, all the sutures done properly. But, wanting to tweak it here and there to make it “perfect.” That was the hyper vigilance of which I spoke. I want a doc w/ that wisdom and self control to say, “We’re done.” We apparently differ.
It is strikingly fantastical that global warming (climate change) science is settled, given the relative paucity of data and yet with thousands of years of recorded history on our unchanging human nature; THAT, is far from settled. Settle the latter and the former will be seen for what it is.
I read an AP report recently that some docs are refusing to accept patients whose parents will not vaccinate their children. I have to process that before I opine. We do have a good friend who is a pediatric cardiologist in the Bay Area, where many lefty wackos refuse to vaccinate their kids. She now has a school age daughter and rants about her kid being exposed because of voodoo medical advice.
More people might believe scientists about GMOs if the studies were not paid for by the companies that make GMOs.
Nick
Sounds like a mantra from the CEOs in Detroit in the 60s.
Re the surgeon, in the early years you want a hyper vigilant one. When they get older, you still want a hyper vigilant one. That way you don’t get equipment sown up in the cavities. Wisdom has its place, in retirement. Vigilance has its place. Know thyself and nothing to excess, still hold true. The minute you take your eyes off the road you end up in the ditch. A stitch in time saves nine. All animals are beaten on their way to pasture. We could set all this to music you know.
Realize that they are asking the public who went through our public education system these questions. The public is about as educated as your cat or dog.
You ask on a college campus!!….who won the Civil War. They don’t even know WHAT that is. You ask who did we fight in WWII…..crickets. What was WWII about…… ha ha….they have no idea. Who is the Vice President of the United States….blank stares. They can’t add 8 and 7 together. They have barely the literacy skills of a 5th grader or 7th grade….maybe…. if they are going to college. Unread and barely literate. They have no idea of history, geography, math, science, writing or have the basic skills to get through life.
Idiocracy in action. The public, in general….as Gruber so astutely noted…..is STUPID. They have been made this way on purpose by our unionized public education system.
They gobble up the pablum fed to them by the media and listen to the opinions of other idiots on Facebook and social media. They have opinions without having to think about it.
And you expect them to understand what genetically modified foods are. What evolution is and how it works. The span of time of the Earth, when yesterday is already forgotten? The nuances of global warming/climate change/whatever…..that requires math and critical thinking skills. They don’t know how ANYTHING works and furthermore….they don’t care.
We are SO doomed as a society.
I had a conversation w/ a surgeon once. He told me he was hyper vigilant during his early years, always looking to make things “better.” A wise, older, surgeon gently told him once as he labored tediously during a procedure. “The enemy of good, is better.” This surgeon w/ whom I spoke was in his 40’s @ the time. He said that is his mantra, “The enemy of good, is better,” every time he finds himself obsessing over something that he has done well, maybe not perfectly, but “good.” You can really screw up things that are perfectly fine, trying to make them “better.” That is wisdom. I know some very smart people w/o a lick of wisdom.
Skepticism is, perhaps, the most important ingredient in the scientific method. Deductive reasoning, removing everything that can be proven not to be the cause and assuming what remains the cause falls well short of the trials and proofs that make up the scientific method.
Even with this process, science is man made and therefore will fail from time to time. However this is the process scrutinizing the process. The most dangerous positions are those that refute the results of scientific method because of its occasional faults. Those positions that rely on belief only, strength of conviction without open mindedness, and sacred tradition regardless of common sense are what must be pushed aside. ‘If it ain’t broke, why fix it?’ should be replaced with ‘It ain’t broke, so why not make it better.?’
Evolution is just that, making it better. Those that can’t handle the questions, typically fall prey to any answer that takes root. In science the answers are continually changing. That’s what makes it evolution.
On the global warming thing, I didn’t know that the public’s skepticism about it was 50%.
Now I don’t feel I need to try so hard to let them know.
Well, common sense tells us there’s no global warming and no evolution. The man in the street asks, “If that’s so, how come I don’t notice it?”
Both these two supposed scientific facts are unfalsifiable – because you can always request more time.
CO2 represents less than 1/10th of 1% of the composition of air. And we’ve given the evolutionists 150 years to find the missing link – and currently – the old boy’s still missing.
Good point, isaac. I was born the year of the announcement of Salk vaccine and remember eating the Sabin vaccine sugar cube in grade school. The school nurse handed them out.
I’ve a friend, only two years older, who has spent his entire life on crutches due to childhood polio.
This country is descending into idiocy.
We may not be seeing polio today, but scientific “advances”: don’t always have a good outcome. As a result of birth control we have seen lower rates of reproduction among high achieving women compared to the rates among low-achievers. Damning rivers has destroyed species and created areas of concentrated methane gas. Antibiotics have created resistant microbes. etc. Input from skeptics and contrarians is an important part of moving humanity forward.
There’s an old saying: it’s not what you don’t know that can hurt you, it’s all the things you know that just aren’t so.
The Achilles heel of macro-evolutionary theory is the age of the earth/universe/whatever. There is a case to be made, of course, but it’s far from being logically flawless. And science and scientists, by the way, are just as capable of being illogical as anyone else.
Evolution is a dogma. It is not permissible to dissent in academic circles. That is just as good an explanation for the high degree of belief in the soundness of evolution among self-described “scientists”.
It’s a mistake, of course, to bring the Bible into it because it’s completely unnecessary. Without the huge expanses of time posited by the theory of macro-evolution, the theory falls apart.
The earth, the dogma says, is about 4.5 billion years old. How do we know? Radiometric dating of rocks. How is that done? U-238 decays into lead-206 so the ratio of one to the other in a rock yields the rock’s age. That’s a simplification, but it’s the basic idea.
What’s the half-life of U-238?
About 4.5 billion years:
http://ieer.org/resource/factsheets/uranium-its-uses-and-hazards/
So – and this is just one example, of course – the suggestion that the figure of 4.5 billion years is not a function of the actual age of the earth but rather a function of how you are measuring the age of the earth is unavoidable.
Do evolution dogmatists have any answer to this, other than to shout down and marginalize anyone who points it out? None that I’ve heard.
Had a little banter about this back in 2010:
https://strikelawyer.wordpress.com/2010/12/21/evolution-is-as-evolution-does/
And I don’t mean to be glib. There are real consequences when an important profession – such as physicians – adheres to a dogma that is – well – unsound. Let’s not forget “tonsillectomy days”:
https://strikelawyer.wordpress.com/2012/02/25/liquidity-trap-theory-and-practice/
The MSM hammers global warming down the throats of people. It is a tribute to the healthy skepticism of Americans that only 50% believe in the Evangelical religion of global warming. Phrenology, blood letting, the static universe[Einstein believed that], and many “settled science” have been proven wrong. Hell, scientists pissed on both legs predicting the path of the recent snowstorm just 1 day out. It just doesn’t past the smell test that these same people can tell us what is going to be the weather years, decades, centuries out.
The no vaccination folks are mostly left wing wackos. It is criminal to not get your kids vaccinated. I’m sorta on the fence w/ genetically modified food, mostly because my doc is skeptical, and I trust her judgment. She’s Harvard trained, down to earth, and a voracious reader w/ common sense. Evolution. I am a member of the San Diego Zoo. I have spent hours watching apes. You can’t do that and not believe in evolution.
I would count myself as agreeing on some of those points in opposition to science and am glad to see many others do as well. From the static-state theory to DDT to personal experiences I have learned that the ones in the know do not always know.
You need to think for yourself–it’s an American tradition.
I thought it was an interesting article too, but you have to a take a self-selecting online poll of scientists commenting on many subjects outside of their given fields of study for the mere novelty it is.
I remember going to public pools in my neighborhood and seeing kids with withered arms and legs. My parents told us that was polio. I also remember us kids at school lining up uniquely to get vaccinated, with needles, sugar cubes, etc. Although I know the odd person with a withered arm or leg who has made it this far, realize that Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and others went through horrific childhood experience fighting the disease, I have not, since I was a child in the sixties, seen a kid with a withered arm or leg. Freedom is sometimes a double edged sword, freedom from and freedom to be stupid.
Thankfully, we have great modern-day electronic public forums of scholarly and philosophical discussion such as Facebook, which will allow the facts of science and indisputable truths of logic to triumph over ignorance and imbecilic propaganda. I have great hope for the masses.