3 ms·

The greatest trick political parties ever pulled was making this kind of thing part of their images. With only two choices, people are roped into supporting al

The greatest trick political parties ever pulled was making this kind of thing part of their images. With only two choices, people are roped into supporting all kinds of things that make no sense for them. But you get "My party believes in science!" and "My party believes in God!" and it becomes part of people's political identities. And then all sorts of other issues are piled on top of it and you find yourself wondering how we got here. It's ludicrous, really.

andrewljohnson 14y ago
If it truly is science vs. religion, then the Republican party will die and be reborn as something new. Religion loses to science over the course of history.
- mjcohenw 14y ago
  I wish that were true. Once religion, especially fundamentalist religion, gets control, science is in real trouble. Read Heinlein's "Revolt in 2100".
  - tokenadult 14y ago
    Read Heinlein's "Revolt in 2100". Is that intended as a recommendation of a scientific source about long-term trends cross-culturally? I got a big volume of the collected "future history" stories by Robert Heinlein out of the library a year ago, and I was disappointed by how poorly those stories have aged. I also figured out, by rereading Heinlein (a favorite author of mine when I was a kid) that he never informed any of his stories with much perspective from non-Western cultures (although I give him credit for being aware of that kind of issue). Since I spent three years in the 1980s and later another three years spanning the turn of the last century living in a non-Western country, I don't turn to Western science-fiction stories anymore for my social commentary. I like to read real science based on verifiable history to puzzle out social trends. I can recommend a source http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/0143122010/ http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/014312... and invite other readers here to recommend other sources. I'm not worried about fundamentalist religion "getting control" of science.

andrewljohnson 14y ago

If it truly is science vs. religion, then the Republican party will die and be reborn as something new. Religion loses to science over the course of history.

mjcohenw 14y ago
I wish that were true. Once religion, especially fundamentalist religion, gets control, science is in real trouble. Read Heinlein's "Revolt in 2100".
- tokenadult 14y ago
  Read Heinlein's "Revolt in 2100". Is that intended as a recommendation of a scientific source about long-term trends cross-culturally? I got a big volume of the collected "future history" stories by Robert Heinlein out of the library a year ago, and I was disappointed by how poorly those stories have aged. I also figured out, by rereading Heinlein (a favorite author of mine when I was a kid) that he never informed any of his stories with much perspective from non-Western cultures (although I give him credit for being aware of that kind of issue). Since I spent three years in the 1980s and later another three years spanning the turn of the last century living in a non-Western country, I don't turn to Western science-fiction stories anymore for my social commentary. I like to read real science based on verifiable history to puzzle out social trends. I can recommend a source http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/0143122010/ http://www.amazon.com/The-Better-Angels-Our-Nature/dp/014312... and invite other readers here to recommend other sources. I'm not worried about fundamentalist religion "getting control" of science.