Most of the Founders of our country were highly educated men. One was the son and grandson of men who had been presidents of Princeton University. The Founders based many of their ideas for our country on the works of philosophers who were quite progressive for the times. They were also very much attuned to the latest discoveries in science. The idea of being anti-science was not part of who they were so I suspect that they would be somewhat concerned about the recent tendencies to condemn science by some politicians and their followers in our country.
When I visited Philadelphia I was enchanted by the museum dedicated to its most exciting citizen, Benjamin Franklin. The truth of the matter is that Franklin was often considered to be one of the greatest scientists of his time. He did way more than make observations about lightening. He studied all sorts of ideas and theories and concluded many of his own along the way. He was an incredibly inventive man renowned worldwide with a title of Doctor Franklin.
Thomas Jefferson’s home at Monticello is filled with his books and artifacts from nature. He studied the physical world around him and invited the greatest minds of the day to his home. He was a thinker and a man who was willing to experiment and learn. I can’t imagine him being anything but excited about the discoveries of science that have made life in the modern world so much better for us all. I firmly believe that he would be more than inclined to believe the scientists at NASA who have visual proof from space of the effects of climate change.
There are people who seem to be wary of any idea that we humans might have something to do with the more violent weather patterns that we are presently experiencing. They believe that we will be just fine if we simply carry on the way we always have and wait until nature adapts to us. They think it foolish to attempt to have an impact on the climate with different forms of energy and new ways of living together on this planet. Some are even audacious enough to boast that they will not even be here if and when the worst consequences happen so why should have nothing about which to worry.
Science was not my favorite subject. It tended to be heavy with facts and definitions back when I was in school, but much of that has recently changed. Students are more likely to complete hands on activities to demonstrate how things work in science labs. They are given opportunities to be creative in using the laws of physics to build things. They discuss and use the scientific method rather than simply being able to name its steps. I would think that with the new emphasis on really understanding rather than memorizing we would surely have a much better informed population. In many ways it seems as though that is true, but most of those folks are to be found in the younger generations. It is mostly among the older folk that the doubting Thomases reside.
Somehow we have politicized science as though what is true and what is false is a matter of opinion rather than provable facts. Now we even will have rulings about pollution and the safety of food and drugs coming from judges untrained in science rather than experts in various fields. Somehow I don’t trust the judgement of a lawyer as much as the informed sources of scientific knowledge who have done such jobs heretofore. Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson did not turn to lawyers to learn about the physical world around them. I would rather have a person from NASA giving advice about navigational systems on rockets than a district judge.
Somehow I fail to see how determining the truth about any scientific concept should be akin to one of our freedoms. If a doctor tells me that he does not want me in his office without a mask I am inclined to believe that his reasons are legitimate. I can’t say the same about an ordinary person who simply feels uncomfortable covering his mouth. It is frightening to me that political candidates are making sweeping pronouncements that would end vaccine or mask mandates even in hospitals and schools Perhaps these people have never read about the deaths from the Spanish flu outbreak of 1918, that was exponential because the medical community did not yet have the knowledge they needed to know how to treat the virus or to keep people from catching it.
I don’t have the expertise nor the chutzpah to ignore the advice and warnings of learned men and women. I can do a great deal of reading but in the end I go with the scientists because I know how rigid their methodologies are designed to be. My gut tells me that we are destroying our planet with our arrogance and the evidence proves that it is so. As I sit in unusually hotter and hotter temperatures each year I sense that something is amiss. When scientists explain why that is happening and what we must do stop the decline I plan to listen. So far they have not let me down.
I am constantly learning from my grandchildren as they discover more and more about the marvels of science. They have been educated in some of the finest universities in the country and I believe what they are telling me. I have doctors in my family who are dedicated to their patients. I follow their advice.
Many scientists from around the world have traditionally been attracted to working in our country because of the freedoms for their work. I would hate to think that the current anti-science trends will drive many of them away. When we have members of a political party threatening to hang scientists or attack their families because they do not like what those scientists are doing we run the risk of experiencing a brain drain much as happened in 1930s Germany. We don’t want that to happen. Instead, like Franklin and Jefferson, we should be open to the discoveries that are designed to help us live in a better world. They both understood that there is progress through science. We would do well to adopt that kind of thinking as well.
All It Takes Is A Little Love 