In case you hadn't noticed, science is under attack in America.  The debate around intelligent design and its true scientific counterpart of evolution is slowly causing a rift between religious dogma and pure science.  Most Americans — the dimwitted and uneducated animals they are — side with religious doctrine over science, and they doggedly stand in the face of research-derived evidence and scoff at it.

Is it any wonder, then, that "U.S. school students perform relatively poorly in international tests of mathematics and science" as opposed to their European and Asian counterparts?  In fact, we Americans place so little weight on education and so much weight on religion that, when asked "what they know about science, just under 20 percent turn out to be scientifically literate."  Yet these are the very same people who will stand an bemoan the evils of science, especially evolution.  It amazes me that anyone with such a clear deficiency in the sciences could feel themselves capable of speaking to any scientific debate — more disturbingly, that they would even attempt to push the falsehood of intelligent design over real science.

And it's not just evolution that is under fire.  All real science is under attack by religious fundamentalists and the Republican party (one in the same, actually).  Uneducated idiots stepped into the Terri Schiavo case and countermanded her husband's orders despite all medical evidence and expertise pointing to his decision as the correct one.  The increasing attacks on science by radical elements within our society and government will eventually destroy all trust in science by those who have any religious beliefs whatsoever.  This, in turn, will reverse America's scientific advancement and herald our return to the stone ages.

You can read more in this Reuters article.  None of the information included is surprising; none of it shocks me.  That doesn't mean it's not troublesome and distressing, for it those things and much more.  It is yet another indicator of the downfall of American society — that we unabashedly support spiritual mumbo jumbo even in the face of overwhelming scientific evidence to the contrary.

[via Jenny]