>----------
>Since there have been a couple of people supporting the notion that:
>
>> Science is a belief system that is all the more sinister by its hegemonic
>> smugness and transparency... and it is really the misuse of science,
>> not faith, that threatens our planet
>
>I would like to register my disagreement. Science offers an escape from the
>religious and nationalistic furor that have served people as excuses to murder
>each other for millenia. The basic tenet of the scientific "belief system" is
>that hypotheses are put to the test. This is smug?
>
>Jim Swanson
>Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff, AB
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Jim:
 
You have a point, but I was using strong words (perhaps too strong) to
challenge the very kind of "its just loogic and numbers, no ideology" kind of
statment you offer in disagreement.
 
Now, although you excised it from my post, I clearly stated that I am not a
creationist, but adhere to a more scientific view of the worlds origin. I am
not science bashing.
 
Science offers no "escape" (into what, purity?) from religious and nationalist
furor. Science has a dark side as well as a good side, and I think that anyone
involved in the sciences in one way or the other just needs to have a balanced
view. Science is nationalisms handmaiden. Putting a man on the moon was not
done in an ideological vaccuum, it was done in the service of fighting a cold
war, a key player in the struggle of Soviet-US dominance. This does not mean
that we have not done wondrous things in space, because that is undeniable. But
it means that science is as human as those it serves.
 
Science is certainly a faith. We look to it to make us well, to grow ourfood,
to put us up ionto the heavens.... possible even make us immortal.
 
And finally, there have been may experiments done in good faith, as I said, I
wouldn't be here without them, but Mengele was doing more than testing
hypotheses, he was using science to butterss his ideology. If your point is
that it is not sciences "fault," that it might be the ideology behind the
effortm, then I might be willing to go along. But there is no science more
dangerous than "pure" science, because it almost make you believe that you can
do no wrong.
 
Most museums are doing a good job these days giving a fair picture of the
pluses and minuses of science. I am sure that this is much more than teh
creationist museum os doing.
 
Hope this clarifies my point of view a bit,
 
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Craig M. Rosa                                        Home Phone: (718) 834-6894
Email: [log in to unmask]                       BCM Phone: (718) 735-4432
M.A. student, Performance Studies/Museum Studies, NYU                 ,^^^^^^^^
PT Greenhouse Instructor, The Brooklyn Children's Museum     ,^^^^^^^^
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