On Fri, Jul 24, 1998 at 01:34:58PM -0700, Jackie Fenton wrote: > I thought it was funny as well as a relief. I disagree with the > statement that "we now live in a society with an aversion to science" > and have seen no evidence to support that we are less interested in > science today than in the past. My experience has been just about the opposite: that there is a strong current of anti-intellectualism that not only encompasses science, but literature, art, music, history, and just about every other field of inquiry. Many of those who simply want to understand the universe (or the world, or themselves, or a work of art) are labeled as elitist snobs or ivory-tower academics or other epithets which say more about the ignorance of those using them than about the character of those they're applied to. While you're right about science being popular in some contexts (e.g. the amazing surge of interest in dinosaurs), I'm not sure that's *real*. It didn't happen because of the controversy over whether or not dinosaurs were warm-blooded (c.f. Robert Bakker's excellent book, "The Dinosaur Heresies"), an incredibly fascinating debate; it happened because Hollywood made a movie about it. I find this very disappointing -- the real debate is far more fascinating than the fantasy. (This is happening again: thanks to Hollywood, the study of asteroids is now receiving some press -- nevermind that the debate over the iridium layer in the K-T boundary and its relationship to a possible large impact 65 million years ago has been ongoing for years.) Again, I strongly recommend Sagan's book ("The Demon-Haunted World"), as he expresses these concerns far more eloquently than I can. ---Rsk Rich Kulawiec rsk_at_gsp.org *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.gasp-seakayak.net/paddlewise/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun Jul 26 1998 - 16:29:18 PDT
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