We live in a country where science needs defending and we have to march on the streets to show the government how much we respect reason and evidence. Neil deGrasse Tyson makes the case that everyone, not just people directly invested in the subject, ought to be concerned about this.
If you, as an educated adult, can say, “This is what these scientists agree to, but I don’t agree with them.” If that sentence even comes out of your mouth it’s like: oh my gosh.
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… if you rise to power and have influence over legislation and that legislation references what you think science is but is not, that is a recipe for the unraveling of an informed democracy. So I’m not even going to blame you. It’s not your fault. I’m an educator. Let’s go back to K through 12.
Somewhere in there while you’re learning about reading, writing, and arithmetic and while you have a class in earth science and biology and chemistry, maybe physics, somewhere in there there needs to be a class, possibly taught every year, on what it is to analyze knowledge, information, how to process facts, how to turn data into information and information into knowledge and how to turn knowledge into wisdom.
There’s also a nice anecdote about how Abraham Lincoln contributed to this understanding. See? There was a time when Republicans cared about science!
(via Big Think)