Tuesday 6 October 2009

Entitled to our own opinions

From his book Looking in the Distance (pages 101-102), here is Richard Holloway on the intersection of religion and science (emphasis mine):
It is embarrassing when theologians try to conflate the Christian story with the current scientific narrative; and it is a mistake, however understandable, when scientists try to disprove the Christian story as though it were just another set of outdated scientific claims. The scientific attack on Christianity is excusable, however, because fundamentalist groups insist on marketing Christianity as a science rather than as myth. While we are all entitled to our own opinions, we are not entitled to our own facts, which is why scientists cannot avoid getting drawn into the quagmire of the science versus religion debate.
That last sentence contains the real money quote for me here:
While we are all entitled to our own opinions, we are not entitled to our own facts.
This is why scientists and fans of science get so het up when people deny things like the well-established and exhaustively-tested effectiveness and safety of vaccines, or the copious and consistent evidence for evolution.

No comments:

Post a Comment

This blog has now moved to a new domain:

http://friendlyhumanist.net/

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.