[Coral-List] Non-scientific thinking

Thomas Webler twebler at seri-us.org
Fri Nov 2 15:29:49 EDT 2012


I can see the sense in John's posting - that we can't use reason to change
unreasonable thinking.

However, people who reject, without due consideration, the conclusions of
the scientific community, are having a larger and larger role in shaping
public policy at all levels of government.  Science is becoming equated
with "mere opinion."

I'm not sure if we can stop it, if we can bring reason back into democracy,
but I fear that, If we stay silent, we run the risk of losing the policy
debate.  And if we lose the policy debate, we lose so much more. (No, I am
NOT talking about research funding!)

We need to find a way to engage people in reasoned dialogue, or we are
lost. (And we are losing, by the way.)  We want to be scientists, but I
think it is also our duty to engage in productive, reasoned discussions
with our fellow citizens.



Thomas Webler
Research Fellow
Social & Environmental Research Institute
Suite 404
278 Main Street
Greenfield MA 01370 USA
www.seri-us.org


More information about the Coral-List mailing list