Blue Streak Science Podcast

Science denial. It’s nothing new. Pope Urban VIII imprisoned Galileo out of anger and fear; a denial of the truth. Two and a half centuries later Charles Darwin publishes The Origin of Species and the fundamentalist shit hits the biblical fan. One-hundred fifty years later there are still those who deny the scientifically undisputed fact of biological evolution. There are many other examples, but let me get to the big one. Climate change. That seems to be the denial du jour.  In the face of a near unanimous worldwide consensus among climate scientists the denialists are stalwart. Hands over ears and screaming la-la-la-la-la. And that leads me to what all of these instances of science denial have in common. A challenge to a strongly held belief, or worldview. These beliefs were once the only way of coming to terms with nature and the universe. But then science came along and ruined everything. As a valid way of looking at nature these beliefs are dead. They have ceased to be! Bereft of life, they rest in peace