Burned witches

Why Politicians Need Science

Remember: Before the triumph of science, we burned witches at the stake and thought that kings ruled by divine right. 

By MICHAEL SHERMER

Sen. Ted Cruz, who recently announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential ticket, thinks, like many conservatives, global warming isn’t happening. As he said on Seth Meyers’ talk show on March 16, “Satellite data demonstrate for the last 17 years there’s been zero warming, none whatsoever.”

It’s no surprise that Cruz picked that figure: 17 years ago was 1998, an “El Nino” year, when global temperatures were artificially elevated after which they returned to their normal gradually increasing rate. When you look at all the data published by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (not just the cherry-picked data that fits neatly into a political ideology), the long-term increase in global temperatures is unmistakable.

I’m not saying that liberals don’t have their own science problem. They have no trouble railing against GMOs and nuclear power, and they ignore the obvious benefits of fossil fuels to pull impoverished people into the age of prosperity (burning cow pies in makeshift fireplaces in mud huts is not an efficient means of heating homes or producing wealth). Don’t even get me started on “anti-vaxxers,” a vocal and determined group that seems to make up a small minority in both parties.

Three centuries after the Age of Reason and the Enlightenment gave birth to the principles that drove the American Revolution, we are forgetting that it is scientific facts that should settle such issues, not partisan politics. In these examples the data are quite clear and the jury is in: Global warming is real and humans caused it, GMOs are safe and we need all the sources of energy we can get to meet the demands of our ever-increasing population. Why, then, are we so politically divided on these points? It seems that, in our rush to find support for what we want to be true (it’s an effect called “motivated reasoning,” which is driven by the confirmation bias in which we seek and find confirming evidence for what we already believe and ignore or rationalize away disconfirming evidence), we have forgotten how to discern what actually is true. We’ve forgotten how to use science and reason to solve problems and instead we’ve turned to moralizing about scientific issues.

Here’s why we, particularly Ted Cruz, should be very worried about this: The influx of scientific principles into society led not only to the triumph of science, but also to the moral progress of the Western liberal tradition—yes, even to Cruz’s prized “exceptional” American democracy. Since the Scientific Revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, intellectuals sought to emulate great scientists such as Galileo and Newton in applying the rigorous methods of the natural sciences to solving social and political problems. Enlightenment natural philosophers such as John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and Thomas Paine—America’s Founding Fathers—placed supreme value on reason and scientific inquiry, which in turn led them to prize human natural rights, equality, and freedom of thought and expression.

In fact, America’s own democracy is rooted in reasoned analysis and scientific inquiry. Based on his medical training and the influence of many of the biggest scientists of his generation, Locke reasoned that all people should be treated equally under the law. He then sought to verify his theory empirically; and his theory has endured, as countries that practice it have flourished.