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<img src="cid:part1.07040604.06040503@mindspring.com"
alt="The New York Times">
<h5><b>March 29,
2005</b></h5>
<font color="#666666" size="2"><b>COMMENTARY</b></font> <br>
<h2><b>When Sentiment and Fear Trump Reason and
Reality</b></h2>
<font size="2"><b>By LAWRENCE M. KRAUSS <br>
<br>
</b></font>
<img src="cid:part2.07080902.05010807@mindspring.com" alt="I"
height="33" width="11"> have recently begun to wonder whether I am
completely out of
touch with the mainstream, and if so, what that implies. <br>
<br>
When I was a young student it became clear to me that the remarkable
success of the scientific method, which changed the world beyond belief
in the four centuries since Galileo, made the power and efficacy of
that
method evident. Moreover, scientific ideas are not only powerful but so
beautiful that they are on par with the most spectacular legacies of
civilization in art, architecture, literature, music and philosophy.
<br>
<br>
This is what makes the current times so disconcerting. We like to think
that spectacular intellectual developments bring progress, so that
future
generations may benefit from what has come before. But this is often an
illusion.<br>
<br>
I remember the shock wave generated four years ago when the Taliban
government in Afghanistan destroyed thousands of statues, including two
priceless and awe-inspiring archaeological artifacts, the world's
largest
standing statues of Buddha, created almost 2,000 years ago. The Taliban
claimed that Islamic law prohibited the creation of idolatrous images
of
human faces that might be used for worship. <br>
<br>
I remember sharing the feeling of incredible sadness to know that the
world had forever lost a precious part of its intellectual heritage. It
was difficult to believe that in the 21st century such a return to the
dark ages could happen anywhere.<br>
<br>
Those images came to mind again as I followed recent news of incidents
in
the United States in which fundamentalist dogma and its fear of the
intellectual progress that comes from understanding nature has trumped
the scientific method. These actions attack intellectual pillars of our
civilization that are every bit as real as monumental statues of
Buddha.<br>
<br>
The "reality-based community," as one White House insider so
poetically referred to it recently, is losing the fight for hearts and
minds throughout the country to a well-orchestrated marketing program
that plays on sentiment and fear. <br>
<br>
The open intrusion of religious dogma into the highest levels of
government is stunning. Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court
speaks of "the fact that government derives its authority from
God" (during oral arguments before the court about displays of the
Ten Commandments) while the president of the United States has argued
that evolution is a theory not a fact. <br>
<br>
The effort to blur the huge distinction between faith and science,
between empirically falsifiable facts and beliefs, was on display again
this month in two very different contexts.<br>
<br>
Congressional leaders ignored the conclusions of the doctors who have
actually examined Terri Schiavo and judges who have listened to the
evidence. Senator Bill Frist, previously a heart surgeon who must have
once known better, shunned the conclusions of these doctors and,
without
ever having examined Ms. Schiavo himself, stated his "belief"
that she was not in a vegetative state. <br>
<br>
Meanwhile, on a much less emotionally tragic but no less intellectually
puzzling front, the Templeton Foundation continued with its program to
sponsor the notion that science can somehow ultimately reveal the
existence of God by once again awarding its annual Templeton Prize for
Progress in Religion not to a theologian, but to a physicist.<br>
<br>
Dr. Charles Townes, the winner, is a Nobel laureate whose scientific
work
has been of impeccable distinction; his prime contribution to religion
appears to be his proudly proclaiming his belief in God as revealed
through the beauty of nature. <br>
<br>
I confess that my immediate reaction was the same as it has been to all
of Templeton's recent awards to scientists. If this is the most
significant progress in religious thought, beating out the work of
distinguished theologians throughout the world, then it is a sad
reflection on such progress. Of course, I rather believe that it
reflects
on the foundation's misguided goals and methods.<br>
<br>
Nature's beauty inspires religious fervor in some scientists. For
others,
like the Nobel laureate Dr. Steven Weinberg, it merely reinforces their
belief that God is irrelevant.<br>
<br>
The point here, which should be obvious, is that science and religion
are
separate entities: science is a predictive discipline based on
empirically falsifiable facts; religion is a hopeful discipline based
on
inner faith.<br>
<br>
Theologians as ancient as St. Augustine and Moses Maimonides recognized
that science, not religion, was the appropriate and reliable method to
try to understand the physical world. Yet it is precisely this ancient
wisdom that is now under attack.<br>
<br>
Foes of evolution and the Big Bang in this country do not operate with
the direct and brutal actions of the Taliban. They have marketing
skills.
Openly condemning evolution as blasphemous might play well to the
fundamentalist true believers, but it wouldn't play well in the
heartland, which is the real target. Thus the spurious argument is
created that evolution isn't good science. <br>
<br>
This "fact" is established by fiat. The Discovery Institute in
Seattle supports the work of several Ph.D.'s who then write books (and
op-ed articles) decrying the fallacy of evolution. They don't write
scientific articles, however, because the claims they make - either
that
cellular structures are too complex to have evolved or that evolution
itself is improbable - have either failed to stand up to detailed
scrutiny or involve no falsifiable predictions. <br>
<br>
What is being obscured in this manufactured debate is that the
underlying
intent has little to do with evolution, or the age of the earth. The
fundamentalist attack is on the basic premise that physical phenomena
have physical causes that can be revealed by use of the scientific
method.<br>
<br>
Because science does not explicitly incorporate a deity in its
considerations, some fundamentalists believe that it undermines our
moral
order, just as the Buddha statues presented a threat to the
fundamentalist Islamic moral order.<br>
<br>
The pillar of our humanity that is most under attack is our remarkable
ability to understand nature. We claim that in places like Afghanistan
the enemies of truth are the enemies of freedom and democracy. If the
scientific method is out of the mainstream in our country it is time to
take a stronger stand against the effort to undermine empirical reality
in favor of dogma.<br>
<br>
<i>Dr. Lawrence M. Krauss is chairman of the physics department at Case
Western Reserve University. His new book, "Hiding in the
Mirror," will appear this fall.<br>
<br>
</i>
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