Quote related to science vs. politics

As im sitting at a bar in Newtown, PA, I felt the immedite need to post a quote I read in the New York Times via cell phone. A quote from an article discussing spending and patterns on incarceration and crime in America.

"If you had a dollar to spend on reducing crime, and you looked at the science instead of the politics, you would never spend I on the prison system."
-Michael Jacobson, President of the Vera Institute of Justice and former New York City correction an probation officer.

Yet another example of the damages cause in society from following biased political platforms rather than pure science in order to make policies.

Trust in Science

            The relationship between the level of education and the level of trust placed in science would most likely produce a strong linear correlation much of the time.  Much of the material learned in history, sociology, anthropology, math, physics, and, of course, biology classes has a foundation based on information collected by scientifically researching individual topics.  However, in a recent article from the American Sociological Association, a limit to this correlation has been discovered.  It seems that education only goes so far in convincing individuals of the credibility of scientific discoveries. 

The article determined that much of the doubt the public experiences towards science is rooted in political, cultural and sociological factors that may not agree with empirically founded evidence.  An example of such a limit is the concept of creationism.  Although I do not claim to have a good (let alone decent) understanding of the argument for the creation of the Earth and the human race, it is often a highly debated topic due to the opposition it creates against the scientifically founded concept of evolution, and the 4.54 billion year-old age of the Earth.  Although there is concrete evidence (carbon dating and genetic studies) of an old earth (as opposed to the creationist theory of a ‘young earth’), religious influences often prevent many American citizens from accepting data that is scientifically founded in favor of a theory that has no concrete evidence. 

            Science, as many know it, is thought of mostly as the study of biological phenomena.  However, scientific studies can pertain to almost any avenue of research, whether it is biologically related or not.  The scientific part of doing research of any kind is the use of strict mediating rules that necessitate the use of controls for comparison, a hypothesis to test, an experiment to test this hypothesis, and a method to analyze the data to form a conclusion from it; otherwise known as the scientific method.  The scientific method is a general protocol used to investigate phenomena, acquire new knowledge, or to correct and integrate previous knowledge.  This method ensures that conclusive data is needed to make scientifically founded conclusions.  It is this unbiased nature of science that makes it a threat to unfounded, one-sided religious and political views.  To quote the article, “In the political sphere, the credibility of scientific knowledge is tied to cultural perceptions about its political neutrality and objectivity, which are crucial social resources for building consensus in ideologically polarized policy arenas.”

            Although it is clear to me that scientifically supported conclusions are the only ones worth considering, it is not possible to convert all of those that do not believe in science due to longstanding religious, cultural and societal opinions.  Therefore, when writing news articles about politically, culturally, religiously, and sociologically relevant topics, it is important to consider the opinions of the general public and to write with as little bias against any opinion, and to instead aim to convey news in a method that displays its relevance to everyday life, not as openly contradictory to certain other opinions.  Although I do not believe this approach is an appropriate means to become a better science writer (science writing does not consider opinions that are not scientifically founded), it will prove to be the most effective means by which scientific topics can be conveyed to anyone that may read them.

ASR rticle can be viewed at this hyperlink:

http://www.asanet.org/images/journals/docs/pdf/asr/Apr12ASRFeature.pdf

Multidimensional Viewpoint Gained via a Liberal Education

            The lack of an understanding of concepts in various subjects is often the underlying cause of many divides between individuals in different schools of thought in societies that are governed democratically.

By definition, our democratic society is constructed to give each eligible citizen an equal say in the making of community policies.  Although this method allows for the equal representation of people from different religious, gender-specific, financial backgrounds and etc., there are often significant discrepancies between the viewpoints of individuals with different educational roots.  Although these distinct opinions are a cause of much debate and argument, the outcome that is produced by the averaging of these ranging opinions often benefits from the input from varying educational/cultural backgrounds. 

However, it is not always possible to achieve a perfect balance, or average, from the varying opinions of U.S. constituents.  In a world in which many citizens are educated chiefly in the areas necessary for their profession, there is an underlying lack of broad knowledge that an individual could use to assess political (or otherwise) issues from several angles, allowing for a more comprehensive view of the matter at hand.  It is because of these benefits, that I strongly promote the concept of a liberal education in which students are required to obtain an education that incorporates at least a basic understanding in fields such as science, economics, policy-making and religion.  This would provide a structural foundation by which, at the very least, certain topics can be viewed using a combined viewpoint, that can encompass, and take into account the interests and values of the previously mentioned ‘specialized’ groups. 

Throughout this semester, I will be blogging about the advantages that being scientifically literate can provide the average citizen concerning the interpretation of news and political issues.  However, I do not want to lose sight of the importance of an all-encompassing liberal education in addition to scientific fluency.

-John

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