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Perry’s Galileo Moment

by Sarah Posner [ http://www.religiondispatches.org/contributors/sarahposner/ ]

In last night's debate, Rick Perry, stumbling over his answer denying the science of climate change, opined, "Galileo got outvoted for a spell." Of course Galileo, considered the father of modern science, wasn't "outvoted" by other scientists, he was subjected to an inquisition by the church for being a heretic.

Although, as I wrote [ http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/5080/few_religion_questions_at_debate/ ] in my earlier post, there was little overt religiosity in the debate, Perry's comments were clearly aimed at a religious audience. Climate change denial is not just hot for energy industry lobbyists, it's especially rampant among religious conservatives.

New social science research by sociologist Darren Sherkat [ http://sociology.siuc.edu/faculty/fac_sherkat.html ; http://blogs.ssrc.org/tif/author/sherkatd/ ; http://www.religiondispatches.org/contributors/darrensherkat/ ] of Southern Illinois University shows that sectarian Christians do poorly on basic scientific literacy questions, and therefore have difficulty engaging in scientific discussions involved in public policy debates on issues like climate change.

"Sectarian Christians" is the term Sherkat uses for what most reporters and pundits call evangelicals, but by which Sherkat means denominational and non-denominational Christians who believe the bible is the literal, inerrant word of God. Sherkat writes in a forthcoming paper in Social Science Quarterly [ http://socialsciencequarterly.org/ ] that nearly one third of Americans "identify with sectarian Protestant denominations" and that "resources from these organizations and their sympathizers have been instrumental for establishing religious alternatives to the teaching of evolution—fostering a vibrant industry promoting 'intelligent design' and 'creation science.'" Josh Rosenau of the National Center for Science Education says that the same strategies are now being directed at attacking the science of climate change.

For his research, Sherkat analyzed responses to 13 questions on scientific fact and reasoning from the 2006 General Social Survey, collected at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. The questions really are quite basic: one covers understanding that the earth revolves around the sun and not vice-versa -- the heart of the church's effort to silence Galileo 500 years ago. Sectarian Christians performed more poorly than other respondents to these queries on basic scientific knowledge.

Sherkat tells me, "The differences are not explained by ethnicity, educational attainment, income, or region of the country. Indeed, religious factors are far larger than gender or racial differences in scientific literacy." Although the public discourse of conservative activists focuses on rejection of evolution and efforts to stymie stem cell research, Sherkat writes that his study "shows that the effect of sectarian religious identifications and fundamentalist religious beliefs extends well beyond these two issues. Given the low levels of scientific literacy prevalent among fundamentalist and sectarian Christians, they may have difficulty understanding public issues related to scientific inquiry or pedagogy, and they may have a limited capacity to understand technical information regarding their own health and safety." These "low levels of scientific literacy," he concludes, "are a substantial barrier to reasoned discourse and informed political action."

© Religion Dispatches 2011

http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/5081/perry%E2%80%99s_galileo_moment/ [with comments]


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Rick Perry and Galileo -- pardners in science



September 9, 2011 | 7:06 am | updated 3:08 pm

Rick Perry, the Texas governor presidential wannabe 2.0, and Galileo Galilei, one of the great scientific thinkers in Western history -– BFFs?

It was a double-take moment in the Republican presidential sweepstakes debate at the Ronald Reagan presidential library in Simi Valley. Perry, a science scoffer on evolution and global climate change, invoked the ghost of the persecuted and brilliant Galileo to support his fingers-in-the-ears, don't-confuse-me-with-facts sentiments about global warming:

"The science is not settled on this. The idea that we would put Americans' economy at jeopardy based on scientific theory that's not settled yet to me is just nonsense," Perry said. "Just because you have a group of scientists who stood up and said, 'Here is the fact.' Galileo got outvoted for a spell," he said.

"Outvoted for a spell"? Like science is the New Hampshire primary?

Even in his lifetime, Galileo was not entirely an outlier on this; Copernicus had broken ground on the "heliocentric"’ solar system -– the sun at the center, and the Earth revolving around it; Johannes Kepler was pretty much on board too.

The people who "outvoted" Galileo on his theory -– and "theory" in science has a different sense from the political-fringey one -- were not the enlightened scientific community; they were not the 17th-century equivalent of the world's present-day climate-change scientists, marshaling reams of data over decades and laying it out in peer-reviewed journals.

The people who opposed Galileo were not standing against conventional wisdom. They were the conventional wisdom, without the wisdom part: biblical literalists, papal politicos, church authoritarians, and a few hack astronomers not bright enough to understand the science.

Galileo, the Inquisition concluded, was "vehemently suspect of heresy." Under duress, he abjured his work (although supposedly muttering under his breath in Italian, "Eppur si muove" -– essentially, "The Earth does SO move.") He was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life, and his work was banned, not only what he had already written, but whatever he might write. (The Catholic Church issued a formal "oops, never mind, Galileo was right" nearly 20 years ago.)

It might all be droll -– like what happened when JPL named its Saturn probe spacecraft "Cassini [ http://articles.latimes.com/1997/oct/17/local/me-43638 ]," and lawyers for "Oleg Cassini," the fashion line named for ther stylist and socialite, demanded to know why JPL hadn't sought its permission. Because JPL's Cassini is an 18th-century astronomer, that's why. Oh, the Oleg Cassini people said.

It would be droll, if Perry weren't seriously running and seriously supported for the most powerful job in the nation, arguably in the world.

Last month, in New Hampshire, a woman prompted her son to ask Perry about science and evolution. Perry answered that evolution is a "theory that is out there, and it's got some gaps in it. In Texas, we teach both creationism and evolution in our public schools. Because I figure you're smart enough to figure out which one is right."

Really? Just plop down a couple of opposing points of view in front of those kids and they'll figure it out? Well, then, why stop at evolution? String theory, the single-bullet theory -– just leave it up to those smart fifth-graders. Let them decide whether global climate change is real. Who needs teachers? (Maybe that's the grand scheme behind all of this: They don’t teach -– you decide.)

The boy also asked Perry how old he thinks the Earth is. "You know what, I don't have any idea," Perry answered. "I know it's pretty old, so it goes back a long, long ways. I'm not sure anybody actually knows completely and absolutely how old the Earth is."

Nobody actually knows? Or does Perry know he doesn't want to get pinned down on this one?

"Young Earthers" and some biblical literalists believe the Earth's age can be counted in thousands of years; a 17th-century Irish bishop named James Ussher set the start of creation as the eve of October 23, 4004 BC, a Sunday (which I find confusing given that Sunday is also the deity's day of rest. And I don't know whether that is Greenwich Mean Time or local time, sorry.) Creationism museums sometimes show dinosaurs and humans coexisting.

Scientists using real science stuff –- instruments and measurements and all that – have put the earth’s age at about 4.5 billion years, so we’re not talking about a rounding-error difference here.

Columbus Day rolls around next month, and in case Perry is considering allying himself to the bold thinking of Christopher Columbus in defying the flat-Earthers, it should be pointed out that anyone who was literate in the late 15th century didn't believe the Earth was flat. They were pretty much just arguing over the size of the sphere. It wasn't until a handful of decades ago that the flat-Earth "theory" has enjoyed a vogue unknown since maybe the 3rd century.

Isn't it curious how some people who disparage science and its "experts" are paradoxically eager to trot out anyone they can find in a lab coat -– and now even, shamelessly, the dead and defenseless Galileo –- as human shields, to prove how wrong those smarty-pants scientists really are?

Copyright 2011 Los Angeles Times (emphasis in original)

http://opinion.latimes.com/opinionla/2011/09/rick-perry-and-galileo-pardners-in-science.html [with comments]


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Perry’s Ponzi-Talk Implies Fraud in Long-Popular Social Security

Sep 8, 2011
Charles Ponzi was a legendary Boston swindler who promised investors 100 percent returns in 90 days if they joined a scheme to buy and sell international postal coupons. In 1920, after roughly seven months of easy riches, he was exposed as a fraud and arrested.
Social Security is a government-run insurance program that provides the typical retiree with single-digit returns on contributions deducted from their paychecks over the course of their working lives. The program has operated for 76 years amid praise from presidents of both parties. In 1983, even as staunch a critic of big government as President Ronald Reagan vowed: “The Social Security system must be preserved.”
To presidential hopeful Texas Governor Rick Perry, however, the country’s most expensive entitlement program is a financial con that would have made Charles Ponzi blush. “It is a Ponzi scheme to tell our kids that are 25 or 30 years old today, you’re paying into a program that’s going to be there,” Perry said during a Sept. 7 debate of the Republican presidential candidates, reprising a theme from his 2010 book “Fed Up.”
Experts on both Ponzi schemes and Social Security say Perry is wrong. ...
[...]
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-09/perry-s-ponzi-talk-implies-fraud-in-long-popular-social-security.html


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