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March for Science in a Nutshell — A Case for the Psychiatrist’s Couch

March for Science

Our friends at The Stream were kind enough to ask me to enlarge on some points made here at Evolution News. I offer my take on this past weekend’s March for Science:

This past weekend’s March for Science on the National Mall was like many things in life. What you saw in it reflected the view of the world you bring to bear. Some of us see science as a no-holds-barred search for truth about the natural world. For us, the March with its mostly political and ideological agenda offered little to love.

For others, though, science is largely a collection of political and ideological certainties. What certainties? Well, you saw those in the signs the marchers carried. This signage reflected, more than anything else, hostility to the Trump Administration.

But there was a larger cultural — perhaps psychological — agenda as well.

The choice of “Science Guy” Bill Nye as honorary co-chair of the March tells you almost all you need to know. Nye speaks for himself pretty clearly. He doesn’t hide his own view of the world. It’s on display in a new Netflix series, Bill Nye Saves the World, a segment of which was released online the day after the March. It’s a beauty. Not literally, but for the welcome light it sheds on where this thing hailed as “Science” is trending.

That’s the warm up. And the bottom line:

This, in a nutshell, is the March for Science. First, attack the rest of the country by advertising what you take to be your own superior smarts and towering sophistication. Second, feel very special as a result. Third, thereby retard, rather than advance, your own cause by aggressively alienating the people you’re supposedly trying to persuade.

And we’re supposed to applaud this as “Science,” the vision of a better tomorrow through rational investigation of natural phenomena? More like a case suited for the psychiatrist’s couch.

Read the rest here.

March for Science

And enjoy these telling photos of the event by our old friend and proud Discovery Institute graduate Anika Smith, who accompanied Steve Meyer (immediately above) for his first ever visit to a political or “scientific” protest.

Photos: March for Science, by Anika Smith.

David Klinghoffer

Senior Fellow and Editor, Evolution News
David Klinghoffer is a Senior Fellow at Discovery Institute and the editor of Evolution News & Science Today, the daily voice of Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, reporting on intelligent design, evolution, and the intersection of science and culture. Klinghoffer is also the author of six books, a former senior editor and literary editor at National Review magazine, and has written for the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Seattle Times, Commentary, and other publications. Born in Santa Monica, California, he graduated from Brown University in 1987 with an A.B. magna cum laude in comparative literature and religious studies. David lives near Seattle, Washington, with his wife and children.

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Anika SmithBill NyeevolutionMarch for ScienceNational MallscienceStephen MeyerThe Stream