.uʍop ǝpısdn pǝuɹnʇ pןɹoʍ ǝɥʇ sı pɐǝɥ ɹǝɥ uı ʎsɐʇuɐɟ ʎɹǝʌǝ
In the begnning, technophilia was one of the hallmarks of American conservatism, In the decades following the Manhattan and Apollo projects, Taft, Goldwater and Reagan all welcomed the sight of science unfolding into new engineering triumphs and expanded knowledge of the material world. But now we see conservatives of an evangelical bent- and their neoconservative political allies shun science as as an affront to metaphysical underpinnings of their systems of belief.
The architects of faith-based policy, from The Discovery Institute and The Center For Ethics and Public Policy, to editorial boardroom of First Things barely wag a finger as diehard heliocentrists declare "Gallileo was Wrong : The Church Is Right ! " and subscribers to The New Atlantis and The Weekly Standard adduce conservatism as a system of belief rather than a collection of principles owing as much to John Locke and Adam Smith as Aristotle and the Decalog.
In the vanguard of science denial in the Climate Wars we see Dominionists and Straussians advancing the political precedence of metaphysics over materialism. In their view the inability to grasp biology as the product of random and meaningless mutation is a display of virtue, as is a refusal to consider that teleology applies to intentional acts of climate forcing as well as purpose in biology
Where ever do they get the entities that pass for ideas in their public conversation ? Certainly not from Hegel. Nuance and rigor are equally lacking from the rhetoric of anti-scientific motives that powers neocon discourse on education and the environment, and the think tank wights that write for its journals would sooner be caught spouting Marx than dealing in categorical imperatives or flirting with Quine or Rawls. So where are the wellsprings of conservative disenchantment with the science that has driven the acceleration of the history of the modern world ?
The embrace of metaphysics and political mythology over modern science by neoconservatives and evangelicals all too vividly recalls this New England literateur :
"WE LIVE ON A PLACID ISLAND OF IGNORANCE IN THE MIDST OF THE BLACK SEAS OF INFINITY, AND IT WAS NOT MEANT THAT WE SHOULD VOYAGE FAR...
The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality ... that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
In the begnning, technophilia was one of the hallmarks of American conservatism, In the decades following the Manhattan and Apollo projects, Taft, Goldwater and Reagan all welcomed the sight of science unfolding into new engineering triumphs and expanded knowledge of the material world. But now we see conservatives of an evangelical bent- and their neoconservative political allies shun science as as an affront to metaphysical underpinnings of their systems of belief.
The architects of faith-based policy, from The Discovery Institute and The Center For Ethics and Public Policy, to editorial boardroom of First Things barely wag a finger as diehard heliocentrists declare "Gallileo was Wrong : The Church Is Right ! " and subscribers to The New Atlantis and The Weekly Standard adduce conservatism as a system of belief rather than a collection of principles owing as much to John Locke and Adam Smith as Aristotle and the Decalog.
In the vanguard of science denial in the Climate Wars we see Dominionists and Straussians advancing the political precedence of metaphysics over materialism. In their view the inability to grasp biology as the product of random and meaningless mutation is a display of virtue, as is a refusal to consider that teleology applies to intentional acts of climate forcing as well as purpose in biology
Where ever do they get the entities that pass for ideas in their public conversation ? Certainly not from Hegel. Nuance and rigor are equally lacking from the rhetoric of anti-scientific motives that powers neocon discourse on education and the environment, and the think tank wights that write for its journals would sooner be caught spouting Marx than dealing in categorical imperatives or flirting with Quine or Rawls. So where are the wellsprings of conservative disenchantment with the science that has driven the acceleration of the history of the modern world ?
The embrace of metaphysics and political mythology over modern science by neoconservatives and evangelicals all too vividly recalls this New England literateur :
"WE LIVE ON A PLACID ISLAND OF IGNORANCE IN THE MIDST OF THE BLACK SEAS OF INFINITY, AND IT WAS NOT MEANT THAT WE SHOULD VOYAGE FAR...
The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but some day the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality ... that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age."
H.G Lovecraft
