Get to know the Theocratic multi-front stealth strategy against science

Read about the theocrats’ startegy and tactics at Talk2Action. Here’s a taste: “Today, a wide-ranging network of Christian conservative “experts” are busily testifying against abortion, same-sex marriage, condom distribution in developing nations, and stem cell research, at the behest of federal, state and local officials. They’re using graphs, pie charts, and the language of scientific objectivity to make their case for creationism, abstinence-only sex education, and prohibitions against homosexuality–even if that means making up their science along the way.”

The above article goes further and gives real examples of the the discredited science presented as if it were sound by stealth theocratic “experts”.

You might also be interested in the following piece collecting articles and links on the recent activities of the theocrats on many fronts, some science and some pure politics:

Curing ignorance about the religious right.

One very interesting tidbit from the article is a link to a news item about the difficulties the Lousiana Legislature is having in coming up with an acceptable version of the Ten Commandments for display.

Yes, there are competing interpretations of the ancient texts as regards the Ten Commandments. These differing interpretations represent competing schools of “Biblical Textual Criticism”. Your friendly RadMod discussed Biblical Textual Criticism in this article about AnswersInGenesis and the problem with competing interpretations of the creation stories.

Speculation on why the fundamentalists stoop to rely on unsound science and discredited “scientists”. In a nutshell, it all goes back to trying to preserve their credibility on the issue of the 6,000 year old earth.

Fundamentalist leaders must preserve the idea that the Bible is to be taken literally. Science viciously contradicts the literal 6,000 year old earth. Therefore science must be attacked. But NOT just the geologic sciences, ALL physical science must be attacked, because All branches of physical science point to an ancient universe and ancient earth (in one way or another). Therefore, fundamentalist leaders try to cut out the legs of science generally, as much as they can get away with politically.

But the fundamentalists have great problems attacking mathematics. There do not exist any “experts” on the side of the fundamentalists who can fashion any argument that our mathematical proofs might be unsound. So they strain to attack the implications of the math. The physical sciences all ultimately rely one way or another on mathematical truths, and their implications. For just one example, the Big Bang Theory was the natural outcome of the math plus telescopic observations. The same math led to Einstein’s Relativity Theories, quantum theory, the Atomic Bomb, lasers, MRI’s, etc, etc, etc.

To attack geology, the fundamentalists do not rely on peer reviewed scientific discoveries. To attack the pro-evolution implications of biology, the fundamentalists do not rely on peer reviewed scientific discoveries. To attack space science and it’s implications for an ancient earth, the fundamentalists do not rely on peer reviewed scientific discoveries.

So, what DO the fundamentalists rely on to make their attacks? They seem to rely mainly on educated Believers who are not respected scientists, who are skilled at questioning the existing scientific theories. They also rely on a few big-business-funded special studies (environmental-related) which do not pass muster with the worldwide scientific community. Is that the best the fundamentalists can do? Where are the real, respected, peer reviewed scientific discoveries by fundamentalist scientists, discoveries that tend to prove the validity of the 6,000 year Genesis account, or that tend to prove the invalidity of our key secular science principles? (raising questions about principles is not proof of the principles’ invalidity). Given the enormous number of millions of dollars donated by the fundamentalists community, you would think such research could be well-funded.

Those people who think the scientific community is conspiring to keep silent about valid pro-fundamentalist scientific discoveries are helplessly misguided. Scientists are just as competitive as anyone else - they’d LOVE to be the person to destroy an established scientific principle, even if the finding supported fundamentalist doctrine.