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Martin,
You raise an interesting point about human behavior, cultural expression and organization globally. Thinking about this broadly, schisms between world views and accumulated knowledge may be inherent in our approach to knowledge.
Typically, we, humans divide and specialize to understand and manipulate, but this process simultaneously isolates and "expertizes" our accumulated knowledge.
Even in our own field we have mighty sought to create informal and formal learning. I don't doubt there are useful differences, but each takes on a "life" of its own over time. This observation applies across all other aspects of human behavior and repeats across all forms of human endeavor.
Perhaps the separation of religion and science may have been our original sin.
Hopefully, a useful thought from me.
C
Sent from my iPhone
On Nov 20, 2012, at 7:43 AM, Martin Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
>
> I wonder if we and schools are compartmentalizing science so that the pubic
> and our students do not understand how fundamental understanding science is
> to ALL aspects of our lives and society?
>
> Yesterday, or the day before, there was an interesting post on Why
> Evolution is True (
> http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2012/11/19/marco-rubio-not-a-scientist/)
> about a statement that Marco Rubio, who is considered by some a viable
> presidential candidate, made in an interview. He was talking about the
> economy and went on to say:
>
> *I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can
> tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst
> theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic
> product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the
> universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I’m not a
> scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that. At
> the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how
> the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should
> have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to
> teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the
> Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be
> able to answer that. It’s one of the great mysteries.*
>
> This is interesting denial of the intrinsic role science plays in our
> "lives" and probably not unusual given some of the statements about science
> that many of our congress people have uttered; even those who sit on the
> congressional "science committees". Two good "money quotes" about this are:
>
> *When Rubio says that the question of the Earth’s age “has zero to do with
> how our economy is going to grow”, he’s dead wrong. For one thing, science
> and technology education has a lot to do with our future productivity — and
> how are you going to have effective science education if schools have to
> give equal time to the views of fundamentalist Christians?* Paul Krugman,
> NYTimes
>
> and
>
> *The bottom line is that this economy, at its root, is built on a web of
> scientific knowledge from physics to chemistry to biology. It’s impossible
> to just cherry pick out parts we don’t like. If the Earth is 9,000 years
> old, then virtually the entire construct of modern science is simply wrong.
> Not only that, most of the technology that we rely on most likely wouldn’t
> work – as they’re dependent on science that operates on the same physical
> laws that demonstrate the age of the universe.* Alex
> Knapp<http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2012/11/19/why-marco-rubio-needs-to-know-that-the-earth-is-billions-of-years-old/>
> at
> Forbes, “Why Marco Rubio Needs To Know That The Earth Is Billions Of Years
> Old”.
>
>
>
> Martin
>
>
> --
> –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
> Martin Weiss, PhD
> Senior Scientist
> New York Hall of Science
> mweiss at nyscience.org
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