Wow, this phrase really set a lot of people off when coupled with the idea of “believing” in science. Clinton has declared quite often that she “believes” in science and I wrote a diary, Scientific American, "Donald Trump’s Lack of Respect for Science Is Alarming". The diary itself was dominated with comments about the contradictory nature of “belief” in science. YOU CANNOT BELIEVE IN SCIENCE!!!
Verb phrases
6.
believe in,
- to be persuaded of the truth or existence of:
to believe in Zoroastrianism; to believe in ghosts.
- to have faith in the reliability, honesty, benevolence, etc., of:
I can help only if you believe in me.
I get it, I think a lot of people do. Science is not something that one wills into existence, holds on and hopes it is real, or puts all their faith into. Those who believe in the scientific method get very perturbed when you mix the language of religion and of faith, with the language of science.
The issue is this. In fact the issue is complicated.
The people we are up against don’t believe in science. They have no faith in the scientific community or the method they use to prove their theories. They believe that they are being lied to and misled. Some even misunderstand the whole concept of a scientific theory and believe that faith is more vital and important than “fact”.
This is one issue.
Another issue that I find often quite unsettling with progressives and Democrats is when insisting on getting stuck on the minutia rather than focusing on the big picture. When it comes to science, we need to think big picture and not get caught up in semantics. And when it comes to talking to people about big issues, we need to stop nitpicking language and really just talk to people about what is really going on. People want to BELIEVE in something. They actually crave this idea.
So just stop. This is why Trump is appealing to so many people who are tired of such arguments.
Plain spoken? He says what’s on his mind? Yeah, you get it.
When we talk about science, when we talk about things like Climate Change, we need to talk about it in ways people can understand, not just in a purely scientific manner.
And no one is asking you to bury your distaste for this mix of science and religion in our language, the muddying of two very disparate places in our society. I get why it’s important, but I also think it’s not as important as talking about the BELIEF in science. I don’t think it’s as important as the issue itself.
This is not Idiocracy. No one is insisting that plants crave electrolytes.
But what I am asking is that you understand that sometimes language is messy and not as precise as we’d like it to be.
What I am asking is,
Let us believe in science so we can counter those who do not. Let us be the voice, loud and clear that we have faith in the many scientists that have said man made climate change is real and a threat to our very existence. Let us proselytize the truth we believe, to those who doubt, or to those who just don’t BELIEVE urgently enough.
Let us BELIEVE in a fact based reality, where when we are contradicted with facts, the most obvious answer isn’t, “Says who?”.