So, I have a friend who is very smart, but whose scientific literacy is, like that of most Americans, sub-par. Thankfully, my mom insisted that all of us were readers, and she supplemented our learning with educational and enrichment trips... hikes, classes, trips to museums. We learned, and we learned to love learning.
My friend's scientific curiosity has been piqued recently by a recent fascination with Richard Dawkins (I don't have the heart to tell my friend that Dawkins is kinda an asshole). Now, one complication in my friend's learning process is that he's not much of a reader... he's an artist, and he learns visually. I've been trying to find decent science videos online to e-mail to him so he can absorb information in the fashion to which he's accustomed. It's funny though, one has to wade through each video in order to see if it's distorted by religious content or WOO!
Why am I bothering to go to such lengths to see to it that a friend of mine gets a belated grounding in the sciences? While I don't have my membership card on hand, I took an oath to spread scientific literacy. I'm stuck at work, but I'll dig up my card and copy down the oath... I swear an oath to do so.
UPDATE: Got my card... emblazoned on it is the following:
THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT
Big Bad Bald Bastard
IS A CARD-CARRYING MEMBER OF
THE SECRET SCIENCE CLUB
And solemnly swears to uphold
the scientific method and
to advance the public understanding
of science throughout the Universe.
That's a pretty heavy burden, but it's a joy to shoulder it.
Sometimes the act of spreading scientific literacy itself results in one's being perceived as being a bit of an asshole. It's the cost when you challenge people to think through their beliefs and assumptions.
ReplyDeletePeople love their Star Trek and Star Wars and do not react well when I point out the problems, from physical limits on relativistic speeds to maneuvering in space to the energy challenges of large-scale directed energy weapons to the lack of even the most speculative theoretical physical basis for "shields".
Or last week, when I pointed out the problems with any real evidence-based discussion of a Multiverse cosmological theory and a surprising number of people were butthurt. You have to remind them that science doesn't care what you WANT to believe, it exists to be discovered and explained in physical terms, and provides both opportunities and challenges...
well, since both you and mikey are far more sciencey thinker types than I am, perhaps you can weigh in over here, where I got into a scuffle with a Greenwaldian Libertoonian who doesn't understand that when physicists and engineers refer to 'free energy' they don't mean that there's no cost to make use of it. And who loves to use undefined vague sciencey sounding terms. It's a bit like arguing with a creationist, so maybe there's no point.
ReplyDeleteThe argument extended into subsequent posts also.
Feel free to point and laugh.
Sometimes the act of spreading scientific literacy itself results in one's being perceived as being a bit of an asshole. It's the cost when you challenge people to think through their beliefs and assumptions.
ReplyDeletePeople will perceive you as being a bit of an asshole if you root for a different ball team than they do. Better to burst their bubbles with the harsh light of truth and be thought an asshole than to let them wallow in misinformation.
And who loves to use undefined vague sciencey sounding terms. It's a bit like arguing with a creationist, so maybe there's no point.
Ah, a WOO! addict. They're even more annoying than Bible beaters, they're just not trying to undermine the separation of church and state.
Many people get into scuffles about science.
ReplyDelete~
In brightest day
ReplyDeleteIn blackest night
These mofos better get science right.