Scientists and health experts agree on what is needed to fight COVID-19: widespread testing, stringent social distancing, hygienic practices like hand-washing, and protective gear for medical professionals on the frontlines, etc. Using data from all over the world these experts have given us a picture of what to expect from the coronavirus pandemic and how to slow its spread.
Ninety-seven percent of scientists around the world have also determined that we are experiencing climate change and agree that humans are causing this global warming. Almost all the reputable science organizations have issued public statements to this effect.
Do you believe the scientists? I do. But many conservative evangelical Christians do not! They are hostile to science, especially if that science gets in the way of their political or theological goals or ideas. They reject intellectual authority. They have disdain for “liberal elites” which has become the right-wing label for educated professionals. This anti-science view—the rejection and disdain for fact, for truth, for reliable data—holds sway in the present administration and among many of our citizens.
On Tuesday, California Rep. Devin Nunes complained that his state’s decision to close down schools was “overkill” in spite of the urgent call from the experts to maintain social distancing. He questioned the experts about that social distancing, saying, just a few weeks ago, “if you’re healthy, you and your family, it’s a great time to go out and go to a local restaurant, likely you can get in easily.” Nunes, like Mr. Trump, is also optimistic about the use of anti-malaria drugs to treat coronavirus in spite of medical experts cautioning against such overconfidence.
Just a few weeks ago an archbishop in Poland contradicted all medical and scientific advice about the coronavirus by encouraging Catholics to go to mass, take communion, and drink holy water: “Do not be afraid of the Church…Christ does not spread the disease.” On the other hand, some right-wing preachers are saying the pandemic really is God’s doing—it is, said one, the “first day of the Apocalypse.”
This rejection of science is not new in politics or in religion, but it sure seems stupid at the moment.
No comments:
Post a Comment