Entry 965, on 2009-03-13 at 20:32:39 (Rating 4, Politics)
There's really only one thing which matters in society and it isn't business, it isn't religion, and it isn't politics. Its science. Science (and its practical offshoot technology) has given us almost everything we have: comfortable living environments, longer life spans, and domination over the planet. I admit that the other fields, such as religion, also influence civilisation but they are really just a sideline (and in most cases a hindrance) to what's really important.
Some people might say that it is industry which has had a greater effect, for example by making us mobile by giving us mass produced cars. But industry is really just exploiting the benefits of technology based on science. If it didn't exist there would be other ways to make cars, but if the original technology didn't exist then there would be nothing for industry to work with.
What about the "more important" parts of life, like spirituality, art, and culture? We can really only contemplate having that sort of aspect to our lives because of our technology. Before technology existed humans spent their whole lives hunting and gathering food. There isn't too much time to indulge in the finer aspects of living when you have to work full time just to survive!
So what's this rant all about? Well I just read an article describing Barack Obama's new attitude to science and it is just so refreshing to hear someone in power saying the same things that supporters of science have been saying during the dark years of the Bush administration.
The big news is that there will be extra money for government backed stem cell research. This vitally important technology has been held back by the idiotic religious ideology of the previous administration and its great to see it going ahead again now. It sounds like Obama's speech was rather uncomplimentary to his predecessor and I applaud that. Its important that people know just how corrupt and ideologically driven it was.
Here's a quote: "Promoting science isn't just about providing resources, it is also about protecting free and open inquiry. It is about letting scientists like those here today do their jobs, free from manipulation or coercion, and listening to what they tell us, even when it's inconvenient especially when it's inconvenient. It is about ensuring that scientific data is never distorted or concealed to serve a political agenda and that we make scientific decisions based on facts, not ideology."
Hallelujah! (if you'll excuse the rather inappropriate religious allusion) Finally we have someone who is prepared to do what's right for the majority instead of being held hostage by both his own idiotic and dangerous beliefs as well as those of his nutty advisers!
Do people never learn from history? On every occasion when religion has disagreed with science and tried to hold back its progress religion has been wrong and eventually been defeated. That will always happen because religion is all about disguising the truth and there's only a certain amount of time you can do that for.
The old expression "the truth will win in the end" is very applicable here. Even if Obama hadn't won the election and the US had continued on its primitive, self-destructive, religiously motivated path the truth would still have won out because the US would have become irrelevant and some other country which values science would take over.
That might still happen but at least there's a chance now for the US to continue its leadership of the world. That leadership has certainly had its faults but it has probably produced the best global "empire" the world has seen so far.
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