While
reading Welcome to the Age of Denial by Adam Frank found
here, I asked myself
how do you expect someone to like your article when you dis them. At the very
beginning of his article he gave the readers a statistic on creationists. The statistic
showed that the number had increased from 1982 to 2012. I wondered why he had
choose this statistic as his opening paragraph for a science article. Obviously
he is going to have some bias in this piece. Such as when he called the
creationists silly.
So I read on and I was not attached
at all to the article. He was being a drama queen, acting like no one pays
attention to science anymore. When something
important in science happens, people notice, he was saying that no one celebrates
science anymore, when they do. Science just isn’t something average people talk
about on a daily basis, and neither is Geometry, I don’t see the big deal he’s
trying to make.
Students going through school still
have to take science classes. Some people like science and some others do not. Students
are still learning about science and how it contributes to society. People do
still pay attention to what is going on in the world, which often times,
involves science. I do not think we should be worried about science not being
important anymore because it is. It is just not as popular as it was when it
was up and coming. I do not think anything needs to be done to protect science,
because it is not going away.
I see your point Maggie. He seems to focus too much on the religion issue, when that isn't the main threat to science. I think the main threat to scientific education is lack of interest--so you could say I agree with him on that point. As scientists struggle to find funding for their research, they will have to make difficult decisions about their passions and goals. The problem with a public uninterested in science is the fear that funding, and by extension, scientific advances, will diminish.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what you're saying here; the author seems to be overreacting to this "problem". I really don't think there's much of a problem at all. Just because science isn't as prevalent in the mainstream as it used to be doesn't mean it's not still an integral part of our society. I feel that enough people realize this and I don't see a shortage of scientists in the near future (especially with our population alone consisting of over 300 million people).
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