redstar2000
30th November 2005, 13:28
Originally posted by BBC
Science faces 'dangerous times'
"Sadly, for many, the response is to retreat from complexity and difficulty by embracing the darkness of fundamentalist unreason"
He will warn core scientific values are "under serious threat from resurgent fundamentalism, West and East".
Lord May completes his five-year term as president of the UK's academy of science on Wednesday.
"Ahead of us lie dangerous times," he will say in his fifth and final anniversary address.
Another danger to the enlightenment of science came from the growing network of fundamentalist and lobby groups in the US that campaigned for creationism to be taught in science classes, he added.
"By their own writings, this group has a much wider agenda which is to replace scientific materialism by something more based on faith," he said.
He called on scientists to take a more active role in speaking out against so-called "intelligent design" and other threats to modern scientific values.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/science/nature/4482174.stm
What I thought was most interesting about this item was the fact that this guy waited until he retired before making this speech.
In other words, it will do no good for the superstitious to "scream for his head"...he's already finished.
A speech like this at the beginning of his term of office would have had an entirely different impact...and perhaps entirely different consequences. It might have set off a blistering public confrontation between those who defend reason and those who defend unreason.
Perhaps he thought such a confrontation would be "un-British". But I think it more likely that he failed to act out of fear.
Publicly "standing up to the bastards" seems to be something that very few people in science are willing to do.
Another sign, if you will, of the reactionary character of our times. :(
http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/223.gif
Science faces 'dangerous times'
"Sadly, for many, the response is to retreat from complexity and difficulty by embracing the darkness of fundamentalist unreason"
He will warn core scientific values are "under serious threat from resurgent fundamentalism, West and East".
Lord May completes his five-year term as president of the UK's academy of science on Wednesday.
"Ahead of us lie dangerous times," he will say in his fifth and final anniversary address.
Another danger to the enlightenment of science came from the growing network of fundamentalist and lobby groups in the US that campaigned for creationism to be taught in science classes, he added.
"By their own writings, this group has a much wider agenda which is to replace scientific materialism by something more based on faith," he said.
He called on scientists to take a more active role in speaking out against so-called "intelligent design" and other threats to modern scientific values.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/science/nature/4482174.stm
What I thought was most interesting about this item was the fact that this guy waited until he retired before making this speech.
In other words, it will do no good for the superstitious to "scream for his head"...he's already finished.
A speech like this at the beginning of his term of office would have had an entirely different impact...and perhaps entirely different consequences. It might have set off a blistering public confrontation between those who defend reason and those who defend unreason.
Perhaps he thought such a confrontation would be "un-British". But I think it more likely that he failed to act out of fear.
Publicly "standing up to the bastards" seems to be something that very few people in science are willing to do.
Another sign, if you will, of the reactionary character of our times. :(
http://www.websmileys.com/sm/cool/223.gif