{"id":332,"date":"2007-12-02T22:48:51","date_gmt":"2007-12-03T02:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/?p=332"},"modified":"2008-08-05T20:41:28","modified_gmt":"2008-08-06T00:41:28","slug":"good-read-of-science-faith-and-feelings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=332","title":{"rendered":"Good read: Of Science, Faith, and Feelings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Henry Neufeld has a good analysis up concerning the strange world we find ourselves in when we trust science with one hand but then discard it with the other.<\/p>\n

These first few paragraphs of his are posted here with Henry’s permission:<\/p>\n

Practically everyone today is heavily dependent on the results on the work of scientists. We are quite content to trust the work of scientists when we climb aboard airplanes, drive our cars, or post blog entries. Of course, a great deal of technological building has been done on the basic discoveries of the scientists, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the theories that scientists have developed that allow these things to work, and we express our trust in the reliability of the scientific method each time we depend on such wonders of modern technology.<\/p>\n

We continue this trust when we hear of theories relating to gravity, various particles, and specific vectors and mutations involved in disease. The results of modern science are so pervasive in our lives, and its theories so pervasive in our thinking that it would be hard to imagine thinking or working without them.<\/p>\n

But all of this trust starts to fall apart for many people over one scientific theory: evolution. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the scary word, the one place where the scientists just must be wrong, and many people simply grab hold of any option available rather than to think that the scientists, who have been repeatedly shown to be right on so many things, may also be right on this one. If a small group of people became convinced that the rules of aerodynamics were faulty, hired PR firms to support their view, wrote popular books on it, and demanded equal time in our high school classrooms, they would simply be objects of ridicule. When the topic is evolution, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s another matter. Experimental data, historical observations, the fossil record, and genetics all combine to provide support for the key elements of the theory of evolution\u00e2\u20ac\u201ccommon descent and variation + natural selection. Yet what would be plenty of evidence if applied to any other scientific theory instead becomes controversial.<\/p>\n

(Head over to Henry’s blog<\/a> to finish reading this piece.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Henry Neufeld has a good analysis up concerning the strange world we find ourselves in when we trust science with one hand but then discard it with the other. These first few paragraphs of his are posted here with Henry’s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcZNLl-5m","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":374,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=374","url_meta":{"origin":332,"position":0},"title":"9-0","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 8, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"That's nine newspaper editorials in favor of including evolution in the state science standards and zero in favor of \"other theories.\" The South Florida Sun Sentinel jumps on board. Evolution isn't debatable in many parts of the world, and among a majority of scientists, but somehow Florida hasn't fully gotten\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Analysis\/Commentary"","block_context":{"text":"Analysis\/Commentary","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":791,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=791","url_meta":{"origin":332,"position":1},"title":"Texas scientists strike back","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"November 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent survey takes the pulse of the Texas higher education folks to see where evolution stands. The TFN Education Fund's press release summarizes five key findings from the survey: \"1. Texas scientists (97.7 percent) overwhelmingly reject 'intelligent design' as valid science. 2. Texas science faculty (95 percent) want only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Other states' news"","block_context":{"text":"Other states' news","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=28"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1260,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1260","url_meta":{"origin":332,"position":2},"title":"Great justifications for teaching evolution","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 5, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A recent guest article in the Washington Post gives a brief overview concerning teaching \"controversies\" like evolution and global warming in our schools. The writer then makes several good points as to why sound science like evolution need to be taught despite the constant opposition. For instance: Science is not\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 1 comment","block_context":{"text":"With 1 comment","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1260#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=135","url_meta":{"origin":332,"position":3},"title":"Staver vs. Ruse","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"January 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"(edited: I feel sillly. It was just pointed out to me that this story was published back in 2005. Better late than never, eh?) The Orlando Weekly has dueling interviews up in a story about intelligent design versus evolution. First up from Orlando is the Liberty Counsel's Mat Staver. Then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "In the News"","block_context":{"text":"In the News","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3431,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=3431","url_meta":{"origin":332,"position":4},"title":"News Roundup 2\/9\/19: Sen. Baxley takes a pounding","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"February 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Several opinion pieces were published since my last news roundup just one week ago. Every one of them tears into state senator Dennis Baxley's bill that attacks so-called \"controversial theories\" in science classrooms. If you need a primer about this bill, check out our issues page:\u00c2\u00a0\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Controversial Theories\/Rigorous Standards\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bills 2019.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.flascience.org\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/eastman.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1266,"url":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?p=1266","url_meta":{"origin":332,"position":5},"title":"Senator Wise and the “non-evolution” “theory of whatever”","author":"Brandon Haught","date":"March 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Tampa Tribune reporter Elaine Silvestrini finally got someone to speak on behalf of the new antievolution bill filed in the state senate (SB 1854): Senator Stephen Wise himself (Story: Legislator's challenge to evolution has some alarmed). Senator Wise doesn't say much of substance other than to sing the same old\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11"","block_context":{"text":"\"Critical Analysis\" bills '11","link":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/?cat=29"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.flascience.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}