Cosmic terror: Why Neil deGrasse Tyson has religious fundamentalists so freaked

[billh58]

[center][/center]

- Snip -

Thanks to the unsubstantiated fear-mongering of celebrities with no medical or scientific credentials, vaccination rates are declining and herd immunity has weakened—with the entirely predictable consequence that highly contagious diseases like measles and whooping cough have reemerged, including in cities and countries that had long been free of them. Vaccination is one of the simplest, safest and most effective medical interventions ever invented, and the diseases it prevents are killers (yes, even chicken pox). There’s no reason whatsoever why people (mostly children) should still suffer and die from them, other than a foolish and tragic lack of trust in scientific knowledge.

These stories go on and on, from antichoice groups pushing the pseudoscientific myth that IUDs and other contraceptive methods cause abortions or spreading falsehoods about the health risks of abortion, to the gun paranoia lobby demanding prohibitions on using public money to study gun violence. But no matter the field or the discovery, the ideologically driven rejection of science diminishes and impoverishes us in ways even beyond the immediate, practical harm it causes.

Science is the most powerful tool ever invented for the expansion of our intellectual horizon, and even besides its concrete benefits, it’s done us the immeasurable service of helping reveal our place in a vast, ancient and wondrous universe. Through following the scientific method, we’ve learned that we are congealed stardust, the heavy elements of our bodies forged in supernovae; we’ve learned that we were shaped by evolution, our DNA reaching back in an unbroken chain of descent to the origin of life on Earth, expanding outward to bind us to every other living organism in a tree of kinship.

http://www.salon.com/2014/03/27/cosmic_terror_why_neil_degrasse_tyson_has_religious_fundamentalists_so_freaked_partner/

The Tea Party, the NRA, ALEC, and the Koch Brothers are buying right-wing politicians to stifle legitimate research into gun violence and its causes. They attempt to stifle almost anything that will benefit the general public welfare, and their fanatical support of the right-wing gun lobby is distinctly un-American, and borders on gun fanaticism similar to their extreme religious fundamentalist views.

We Liberal Democrats must work to separate the radical right from the important issues facing this nation (including rational gun violence research aimed at solutions) and take back this country from the extremists who would impose their narrow views on everyone. We can only accomplish this by voting like our future depends on it, because it absolutely does.