(Galileo's telescope)
The election for President of the United States is almost a year away but it seems like it is so close. Domesday talk from the right and left and the constant debates between the GOP hopefuls makes this elections cycle already tedious. In one of the many debates that have happened since Governor Rick Perry jumped into the race, Governor Perry has made some interesting comments, some caught by the media and others just by the blogosphere. The one quote that made me do a double take was in reference to climate change. Governor Perry was asked about his thoughts on climate change science.
"Well, I do agree that there is — the science is — is not settled on this. The idea that we would put Americans' economy at — at — at jeopardy based on scientific theory that's not settled yet, to me, is just — is nonsense. I mean, it — I mean — and I tell somebody, I said, just because you have a group of scientists that have stood up and said here is the fact, Galileo got out voted for a spell." - Rick Perry
This last statement floored me. One Galileo's theories were not voted on, the Church did not believe it and placed him in house arrest until his death. It was not until 1992 that Pope John Paul II issued a writ of apology saying that the Church was wrong. And two, he was not wrong. He practiced science and the Church practices philosophy veiled as science in their minds. Perry's anti-science rhetoric is disingenuous, ignorant and based not on anything close to Science. The right is found of flouting Hitler when describing the left and to me, the rights's version of science is much closer to that of Hitler and his minions than real science: create a hypothesis, collect data to test said hypothesis and repeat many times.
So as the debates continue and the misinformation machine keeps rolling, remember the difference between science and religion.
