TRUTHOUT Oct 10, 2006 An Urgent Call by Scientists to ... Defend Science

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An Urgent Call by Scientists to ... Defend Science

t r u t h o u t | Statement

Tuesday 10 October 2006

IN THE UNITED STATES TODAY SCIENCE, AS SCIENCE, IS UNDER ATTACK AS NEVER

BEFORE.

The signs of this are everywhere. The attacks are coming at an accelerating

pace, and include frequent interventions by powerful forces, in and out of

the Bush administration, who seem all too willing to deny scientific truths,

disrupt scientific investigations, block scientific progress, undermine

scientific education, and sacrifice the very integrity of the scientific

process

itself - all in the pursuit of implementing their particular political agenda.

And today this dominant political agenda is profoundly allied and intertwined

with an extremist (and extremely anti-science) ideological agenda put forward

by powerful fundamentalist religious forces commonly known as the Religious

Right. These fundamentalists now have extensive influence and representatives

in major institutions of the US government, including Congress and the White

House. This itself goes a long way toward explaining why science itself is

under such unprecedented attack.

It is commonplace under the current Administration for the government to

deny funding, censor scientific reports, or in other ways undermine scientific

research which might turn up facts which they don't want to hear; to

manipulate, distort, or outright suppress scientific findings they find

objectionable;

to attempt to reshape government scientific panels to obtain policy

recommendations on issues ranging from health to the environment, based less on

actual scientific findings than on the requirements of the Administration's

agenda.

The situation is so serious that more than 6,000 scientists have already

signed the " Restoring Scientific Integrity " statement of the Union of Concerned

Scientists, which denounces the Bush Administration for " abuse of science " ;

and Scientific American published an editorial under the title: " Bush-League

Lysenkoism: The White House Seeks to Bend Science to Its Will. "

CONSIDER THIS:

* Particular Christian fundamentalist " moral codes " are increasingly

imposing restrictions on what kinds of questions can be investigated by

scientists and what kinds of answers scientists can come up with.

HIV-prevention

studies have come under attack for even attempting to study prevalent sexual

practices. Funds have been cut and researchers have faced intimidation and

harassment from fundamentalists inside and outside of government who insist

that

scientific study of HIV/AIDS begin and end with the demand for

" abstinence-only " programs - regardless of the human and social cost. Research

into human

sexuality in general has been suppressed and faulty studies and outright

disinformation about the effectiveness of condoms and other birth control

methods

have been promoted and disseminated by the Administration. The Department of

Health and Human Services is known to have deleted from its web site

scientific health information which conflicted with the Administration's

" abstinence-only " approach to sex education ... THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

* Entire new fields of scientific inquiry, like stem-cell research,

with potential for path-breaking medical breakthroughs, are denied federal

funds

because of fundamentalist religious objections ... THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

* Scientists whose findings conflict with corporate interests or

policies of the Bush Administration face threats of retaliation or denial of

funding. There have been " gag orders " forbidding government scientists from

talking

publicly about important scientific questions and, at times, even mentioning

terms like " global warming. " In studies by government scientists on global

warming and its potentially devastating consequences for the planet and

humanity, titles of reports have been changed and whole sections deleted by

high

political officials. There are repeated efforts by government officials to

over-rule scientists on such things as which plant and animal species to

include

on the " Endangered Species " list, which natural habitats are in critical

need of preservation, how to set air and water quality standards, and so on ...

THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

* In a practice many have denounced as " Scientific McCarthyism, "

scientists who are candidates for scientific advisory boards and panels have

been

asked how they voted or whether they support particular policies of the

Administration, and some have been denied appointments because of their

political

views. THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

* Official government-run bookstores at the Grand Canyon have carried

books promoting as fact the literalist Biblical notion that the Grand Canyon

was formed only a few thousand years ago by " Noah's Flood, " in direct

contradiction to the overwhelming geological evidence and scientific consensus

that

the Grand Canyon contains rocks that are billions of years old and that the

Canyon itself was carved out by a river, over a very long period of time,

millions of years ago ... THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

And that is not all: Here we are in the 21st century, and the head of the

government himself, W. Bush, refuses to acknowledge that evolution is a

scientific fact! THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE.

The President claims: " On the issue of evolution, the verdict is still out

on how God created the earth, " and then sits smugly by while Creationists

carry out an assault against evolution in classrooms, museums, libraries,

government bookstores, and even IMAX movies and science theaters.

No, Mr. President, the verdict is NOT out on evolution. EVOLUTION IS A FACT

- IT IS ONE OF THE MOST WELL-ESTABLISHED AND WELL-DOCUMENTED FACTS IN THE

HISTORY OF SCIENCE. TO DENY AND ATTACK EVOLUTION IS TO DENY AND ATTACK ONE OF

THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL FACTS ABOUT ALL OF NATURE AND REALITY AND ONE OF THE MOST

CRUCIAL FOUNDATION STONES OF ALL OF MODERN SCIENCE. Evolution is not a matter

of " controversy " in the scientific community: It is recognized as a fact by

the overwhelming majority of scientists in the US and throughout the world.

Evolution is just as well-established as the fact that the earth goes around

the sun - a scientifically-demonstrated truth which, several centuries ago and

for some time, was also opposed and even viciously suppressed because of a

religious inquisition, resulting in great harm to science and to humanity. We

cannot, and will not, allow the same kind of thing to happen with the

scientific fact of evolution.

Therefore, we, the undersigned scientists and members of the scientific

community, are issuing this urgent call to everyone in society to take up the

challenge to DEFEND SCIENCE.

To be clear: Many who continue to hold religious beliefs can and should

rally to this call to DEFEND SCIENCE. This is not about science trying to

destroy

religion. It is about defending science from a specific right-wing political

agenda which, coupled with a fundamentalist, Biblical-literalist religious

ideology, is setting out to implement a program that will fundamentally

pervert and undermine science and the scientific process itself.

Individual scientists may be atheists or agnostics, or may hold various

religious beliefs; and their politics range over the full spectrum of political

views. But one thing the overwhelming majority of scientists have in common is

their understanding that, when conducting scientific investigation and

applying the scientific method, it is essential to use as a starting point

previously accumulated scientific knowledge - the storehouse of

well-established

scientific evidence about reality which has previously been arrived at through

concrete and systematic scientific observation and experiment and has been

subjected to rigorous scientific review and testing. This is what we scientists

stand on as our foundation when we set out to further investigate reality and

make new discoveries. This is how science has been done and how it has

advanced for hundreds of years now, and this has allowed science to benefit

humanity in countless ways.

Genuine science never proceeds from, or uses as its starting point, any set

of subjective " beliefs, " " opinions " or " faith-based edicts " handed down by

religious or secular authorities and proclaimed to be beyond human questioning,

testing and investigation. To bring into the scientific process assumptions,

religious or otherwise, which were not arrived at by scientific methods, and

which by definition cannot be tested by scientific methods, would destroy

science as science.

In conclusion: We must refuse to accept a situation where scientific inquiry

is blocked or its findings ruled out of order unless they conform to the

goals of the government, to corporate interests and to the ideology of

religious

fundamentalists; where dogma enforced by governmental and religious

authority takes the place of science; where the scientific approach of seeking

natural explanations for natural phenomena is suppressed. We must insist on an

atmosphere where scientists are allowed to seek the truth, even when the truth

conflicts with the views and policies of those in power, and where the

scientific spirit is fostered, where science education and the popularization of

the

scientific method are valued, where people are encouraged to pursue an

understanding of how and why things are the way they are; where all that has

been

learned by humanity so far, all that has repeatedly been tested and found to

be true, serves as the starting point for further investigation of reality.

IT IS UP TO US. IT IS TIME TO TAKE A CLEAR AND DECISIVE STAND IN DEFENSE OF

SCIENCE. THIS IS OF CRUCIAL AND URGENT IMPORTANCE NOT ONLY FOR SCIENTISTS BUT

FOR PEOPLE THROUGHOUT SOCIETY, FOR HUMANITY AS A WHOLE AND FOR FUTURE

GENERATIONS.

(End Statement)

PARTIAL LIST OF DEFEND SCIENCE SIGNATORIES

Isabella A. Abbott, marine botanist/ ethnobotanist, Dept. of Botany,

University of Hawaii, Honolulu

Marc , Professor of Astronomy, UC Berkeley, member National Academy of

Sciences

Ehrlich, Bing Professor of Population Studies, Stanford University

G. Hadfield, Professor of Zoology, University of Hawaii

Philip Hanawalt, Professor of Biology, Stanford University, member National

Academy of Sciences

Donna Haraway, Professor, History of Consciousness Dept., University of

California at Santa Cruz

Carl Heiles, Astronomy Department, UC Berkeley

G. Hildebrand, Regents Professor of Neurobiology, University of Arizona

M. Koehl, Professor, Dept. of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley, member

National Academy of Sciences

Kopell, Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics, Boston University

Leonard Krishtalka, Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Director,

Biodiversity Institute, University of Kansas

A. Lee, Dept. of Physics, Institute for the Study of Earth, Oceans

and Space, UNH

Barr Lentz, Professor & Director of Biophysics, UNC, President-Elect of the

Biophysical Society

Lovelock, originator of the Gaia hypothesis, author of The Wrath of

Gaia

Geoff Marcy, Professor of Astronomy, UC Berkeley

Margaret McFall-Ngai, Professor, Dept of Medical Microbiology and

Immunology, University of Wisconsin Madison

Padian, Professor, Department of Integrative Biology, UC Berkeley

R. Palumbi, Professor of Biological Sciences, Hopkins Marine

Station, Stanford University

Pearse, Professor Emeritus, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology,

University of California, Santa Cruz

D. Perkins, Professor of Biology (Emeritus), Stanford University,

member National Academy of Sciences

Theodore A. Postol, Prof. of Science, Technology, and National Security

Policy, MIT

M. (Zack) , Dept of Integrative Biology, University of

California, Berkeley

Prothero, Prof. Caltech and Occidental College

Edwin E. Salpeter, Prof. Emeritus, Physical Sciences, Cornell University,

member National Academy of Sciences, Royal Society (UK)

, Geneticist, Cancer researcher, Developmental biologist,

Stanford Unversity, member National Academy of Sciences

Singer, Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics, Princeton University

Sessler, Former President of the American Physical Society, member of

the National Academy of Sciences

Ardea Skybreak, author of Science of Evolution

Somero, Stanford, Marine scientist who studies effects of temperature

change on marine organisms

Ward, faculty member Department of Biology, University of Washington

Wm J. Welch, Professor of Astronomy, UC Berkeley

_www.defendscience.org_ (http://www.defendscience.org/statement.html)

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