By Ira Mark Egdall <\/p>\n
At a dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners<\/strong> in 1962, American President John F. Kennedy said \u201cThis is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.\u201d <\/p>\n In thinking about Jefferson, I wondered what the principle author of the Declaration of Independence (and other founding fathers) would say about our current political climate — particularly the tendency of some politicians to be anti-science. <\/p>\n \u201cScience has liberated the ideas of those who read and reflect, and the American example has kindled feelings of right in the people.\u201d Jefferson wrote to John Adams in 1813. \u201cReason and free inquiry,\u201d he also stated, \u201care the only effectual agents against error.\u201d <\/p>\n \u201cThere is nothing which can better deserve our patronage than the promotion of science and literature,\u201d George Washington declared in an address to Congress in 1790, \u201cKnowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.\u201d <\/p>\n James Madison, the \u201cFather of the American Constitution\u201d wrote \u201cPhilosophy (science) is common sense with big words.\u201d <\/p>\n Benjamin Franklin was<\/em> a scientist and a prolific inventor (amongst many other things). He was the first to label electricity as positive and negative — and the first to discover the conservation of charge.<\/p>\n America\u2019s founding fathers were children of the Enlightenment — the 18th century Age of Reason with adherents such as Newton, Locke, Spinoza, Voltaire, and Rousseau. The beliefs of John Locke in particular regarding people\u2019s \u201cinalienable\u201d rights provided the foundation for the governing philosophy of the United States. Enlightenment scholars considered free scientific inquiry and rational thought as the highest form of human activity.<\/p>\n Today we find certain politicians challenging evolution, the big bang theory, the age of the universe, and the age of the Earth. These scientific findings are based on rational thought and supported by substantive empirical evidence. They are overwhelmingly accepted by experts in the field as our current best understanding of how nature behaves. <\/p>\n Perhaps politicians argue against these tenets of established science because of their beliefs or to court votes. To them I say: I respect your right to say what you will. But your anti-science views are not the principles upon which our great country was founded. Please do not pretend otherwise. <\/p>\n I welcome all comments — pro and con.<\/p>\n My website: marksmodernphysics.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Ira Mark Egdall At a dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners in 1962, American President John F. Kennedy said \u201cThis is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.\u201d In thinking about Jefferson, I … Continue reading “We the People . . .”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-82","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.scienceforums.net\/ime\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}