tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788575.post8228095714014039171..comments2024-01-11T22:45:53.276-08:00Comments on Tom King's CRM Plus: Supporting Science, Saving the PlanetThomas F Kinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00037819472341496713noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8788575.post-37789523692966815882017-09-08T11:07:35.091-07:002017-09-08T11:07:35.091-07:00In the same way that science is neither inherently...In the same way that science is neither inherently good nor bad, it is also not totally secular. Let's face it; just as those with active religious beliefs base their actions under those beliefs with an element of faith in things unprovable, those of us who base our understanding of the physical world on the current scientific method ground many of our actions and hypotheses on faith in things as-yet un-proven. So, as one whose undergraduate education was at a strongly secular engineering school, I feel it is doing us no good when those viewed by the general public as representative scientists, openly scoff at religion. Looked at objectively, we, too have our un-proven axioms that we base our life-models on. Including tolerance if not acceptance of the other guy's axiomatic beliefs is part of an effort over time to win at least cautious acceptance of scientific evidence. <br />We will never win over those who reflexively thump thousand-year-old documents as the literal model for the universe, but we don't have to. In a democratic society we only have to win over the fence-sitters to be successful in cultivating the resources needed to go forward in scientific inquiry. <br />We also have to be honest, and acknowledge that some of our scientific number have slanted, even falsified, their observations to justify the conclusions they wanted to prove. Failing to "clean up our own house" only gives those at the rapid opposite pole a chance to say "See---I told you! Their whole world model is built on fake findings!" Piltdown man, Silent Spring, and the recent stem cell research fakery only create poster children for those threatened by the solidly-based research findings of the honest.<br />Finally, we need to aggressively pursue making our point with real events. It would not be dishonest to say, loudly in the present, "Look---two huge hurricanes destroying billions of dollars of our Country within days of each other cannot be sheer accident. The hydrological cycle has accelerated DUE TO GLOBAL WARMING. Anyone with eyes can see it." That is the time that a battered public may begin to doubt that global warming is some artificial crisis manufactured to export jobs. <br />Again, the impending collapse of Mount Manpac in North Korea following multiple subterranean nuclear explosions with the threatened release of radioactive fallout into the air of South Korea, Japan and even southern China and the waters of the Sea of Japan that feed so many is a perfect opportunity for the scientific community to raise awareness at an international level, upping the ante on the Chinese Government to see North Korea as more of a threat to them in the political and physical spheres than Kim Jong Un's usefulness as a nettle in the side of the U.S.<br />Support of well-performed and clearly-spoken science is, indeed, vital to not only science, but saving the planet from the depredations of our clannish, often-thuggish and violent species.TJ O'Neil MD FACP FASN COLUSAFMC(Ret)https://www.blogger.com/profile/18264059064279122472noreply@blogger.com