Bigfoot DNA sequenced?

[Konrad Hartmann]

I want to know the same thing myself Gene,......why has it become so culturaly accepted to not only act ignorant, but to flaunt your ignorance like it's something to be proud of?
TV shows such as Jersey Shore and that baby boo boo show get high ratings, and they are garbage. Garbage that drags humanity down to it's lowest level!
Bush JR was no intellectual, and he was proud of it.

100 years ago mathematicians and scientists were hailed as heroes! Everyone respected them and looked up to them as role models!
Now we have shows like The Big Bang Theory that make intelligent scientists look like socially inept fools and geeks (but to confess, I do like that show...guilty pleasures....).

What did happen to people aspiring to be more? Instead of not just settling for less, but actually putting effort into actively being less?

I'm not sure if things were so much better in 1912. If now, in 2012, many people still reject evolution and the overwhelming data regarding the earth's age, I would bet we would not be impressed by the average person's relationship to science back then. True we have garbage TV, but I think people back then would have liked it just as much. Maybe if anything, the entertainment industry has simply dialed in on what the masses like.

A number of scientists today, were they to share what we now know, would have been run out of town 100 years ago. I suspect that, like now, most men would have looked up to successful athletes as their role models. One difference you would probably see is in the college academic field, though. When I went to college in the 90s, I didn't know a single person who knew Greek or Latin (including me). I don't think you could get away with that 100 years ago.

You know what, exo_doc, now I'm starting to agree with you, at least as far as the U.S. is concerned. I'm watching the end of an empire. Because of its failures to support STEM education, the U.S. will eventually sink as other nations rise. The flag planted on Mars will not be the U.S. flag.

 

[mike]

Now we have shows like The Big Bang Theory that make intelligent scientists look like socially inept fools and geeks (but to confess, I do like that show...guilty pleasures....).

I must admit i too love BBT, my house looks like it could be one of the shows sets, and unlike most people i know , i get the science jokes and sci fi references.

 

[Goggs Mackay]

I want to know the same thing myself Gene,......why has it become so culturaly accepted to not only act ignorant, but to flaunt your ignorance like it's something to be proud of?
TV shows such as Jersey Shore and that baby boo boo show get high ratings, and they are garbage. Garbage that drags humanity down to it's lowest level!
Bush JR was no intellectual, and he was proud of it.

100 years ago mathematicians and scientists were hailed as heroes! Everyone respected them and looked up to them as role models!
Now we have shows like The Big Bang Theory that make intelligent scientists look like socially inept fools and geeks (but to confess, I do like that show...guilty pleasures....).

What did happen to people aspiring to be more? Instead of not just settling for less, but actually putting effort into actively being less?

Guys, not being American and not following your elections I'm a bit in the dark - also I can't be arsed looking for the answer when my friends here can tell me!

So there is a US senator that refused to even be drawn on discussing the age of the Earth, with regards to those who cite the Bible as a reliable way of calculating the age based on the life-spans and much-begatting of all the randy buggers in the middle east?

I know Florida is in the Bible-belt but surely that should be(is?) all over the news over there? I know the UK press is notorious for not holding back but I would imagine all news media would think that a worthy quote - Bible-belt or not. The government in America is supposed to be separate is it not? It sounds like any Senator saying that is not saying so because he believes the Earth is that young, but because he does not want to alienate the idiots who do?
It disgusts me beyond words that any section of the electorate should have that sway - be they christians or anything else.

 

[exo_doc]

Guys, not being American and not following your elections I'm a bit in the dark - also I can't be arsed looking for the answer when my friends here can tell me!

So there is a US senator that refused to even be drawn on discussing the age of the Earth, with regards to those who cite the Bible as a reliable way of calculating the age based on the life-spans and much-begatting of all the randy buggers in the middle east?

I know Florida is in the Bible-belt but surely that should be(is?) all over the news over there? I know the UK press is notorious for not holding back but I would imagine all news media would think that a worthy quote - Bible-belt or not. The government in America is supposed to be separate is it not? It sounds like any Senator saying that is not saying so because he believes the Earth is that young, but because he does not want to alienate the idiots who do?
It disgusts me beyond words that any section of the electorate should have that sway - be they christians or anything else.

Well Goggs, it's a bit complicated.
There is a Fundamentalist Christian segment in our culture that interprets our Constitution reading "Freedom of Religion" to mean "Freedom of Religion for Christians Who Agree With Our Religious Views......Only". They constantly try to pass Christian based laws to force others who may or may not be Christian to follow thier religion. For example.....Gays cannot get married in the eyes of the Federal Government, even though it is legal in some states..........that is most assuredly a religiously based law. We can't have Federal funding of Stem Cell Research, once again a religious decision.
This Senator, who is on the National Science Committee, has said Evolution (the MOST successful scientific theory ever) is "straight from the pit of hell" (that's a quote). And he bases this on his religion....NOT on scientific facts or logical arguments. And it just blows my mind that mindless createn is on a SCIENCE committee for Petes sake!
There are several religiously based groups here in the US that actively try to cover up, distort, or outright lie about ANY science that they THINK may disprove thier religion, or at least show that some of their religion can't be true.(ie, the Earth being (Bibilically) 6000 years old instead of the scientifically determined 4.7 billion years old.

And of course the number one area of science constantly attacked is Evolution.
Did I leave anything out?

 

[Goggs Mackay]

Thanks Exo. Really good answer.

 

[mike]

Its the god gap scenario, for many many years "god" was the go to answer for anything unexplained, even down to the newly discovered rings of saturn postulated to be jesus's ascended foreskin.
As time progressed science started to answer the myriad questions our existance throws at us.
This "competition" is a direct threat to the old paradigm, and therefore must be from satan.
If its not for us, its against us, if its against us its the devil.
Science now directly contradicts the "perfect" word of god as written in the bible, to those happy to wallow in superstition and ignorance in return for heaven, this is intolerable
In such a polarised debate science then must be straight from the pit of hell.

So, once in a while I get people that really — or that claim — they don’t believe in evolution,” Nye said. “And my response generally is ‘Well, why not? Really, why not?’ Your world just becomes fantastically complicated when you don’t believe in evolution. I mean, here are these ancient dinosaur bones or fossils, here is radioactivity, here are distant stars that are just like our star but they’re at a different point in their lifecycle.”
“The idea of deep time, of this billions of years, explains so much of the world around us” he added. “If you try to ignore that, your world view just becomes crazy, just untenable, itself inconsistent.”
The crux of Nye’s argument lies in his implied purpose for speaking out—that Americans need to embrace science over belief for the sake of a better society.
“
We need scientifically literate voters and taxpayers for the future,” he said. “We need people that can — we need engineers that can build stuff, solve problems.”


Nye began his message by saying that the United States is unique in its fairly mainstream opposition to evolution, a position held by mostly religious Christian conservatives


.

Science Guy Promotes Evolution Over Creationism - Science News - redOrbit

 

[exo_doc]

Thanks Exo. Really good answer.

Goggs, you might want to read "Job: A Comedy of Justice" by Robert A Heinlein. It reveals some of what a theocratic government would be like to live under. Excellent read.
Another one that I would recommend is "The Handmaids Tale", by Margaret Atwood .