Misleading Witch Hunts

     There has been a lot of hot air blowing around Capitol Hill. (Yes, that's normal.) Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), head of the House Science Committee is demanding emails and other correspondence from scientists in the US because he, and many others like him, think there exists a vast liberal conspiracy to fool people into believing Climate Change is real. Of course, because of the scientific method, the evidence and data that has been compiled and shared in the scientific community, the results seem pretty clear. Climate Change is real and will continue to get worse as we burn more fossil fuels to power our world.

     Scientists are not taking Congressman Smith's witch hunt lying down. The evidence, their methodology and the peer review process protects against false findings and making things up. Say some scientist decides to fake his results? No problem. Other scientists will review any and all papers published and try to recreate the findings. This ensures that one person can't just make crap up. Peer review. It is a wonderful thing. Now why wouldn't the head of the House Science Committee ignore the very basis of scientific debate in his quest to find scientific truth? The heads of 7 scientific societies have stood up to Congressman Smith in response.

     The issue that we must face now is that many uneducated people and people who do not understand the scientific method (and how it bases findings on hard evidence and repeatable experiments) will see the refusal of these scientists and experts as them trying to hide something. Which is how many conservatives want this to look. It creates a false sense of debate, allowing people, who have no clue how to comprehend or explain how global warming is affecting Climate Change, to dismiss it. Many hide behind their religious faith, saying they believe that God wouldn't let this happen. Or that we can't possibly understand how the world and nature works. Which is their right. Faith and freedom of religion is ensured under the Constitution.

     But, to impose those beliefs and religious faith on others, telling others that their faith scientific inquiry and experimentation to explain the natural world violates their rights ensured under the Constitution. Believing in religious teachings and accepting them as gospel takes a leap of faith. Believing in science and how conclusions are drawn through the scientific method takes a different kind of faith, but it is one built on facts, tangible variables and measurable interactions.

     This fantastic article from The Atlantic, written by Paul Bloom, explains the difference between Why Scientific Faith Is Different From Religious Faith. This is such a delicate subject, especially nowadays. Does anyone really understand what the scientists are saying? How they came to believe in their findings? And if conservative law makers insist on uncovering a so-called global conspiracy to fool people into reducing waste, making clean energy and cleaning up the air and water, why are they not investigating or demanding emails and data from the Fossil Fuel industry and big corporations? Wouldn't these entities have valuable information that could make (or break) this so called witch hunt?

     People need to start asking these questions. One can not come to a reasonable and informed decisions by investigating one side of an issue. One has to examine all the evidence, read all the emails, look at all the conclusions. To do that, there is this thing called the scientific method. It works great! Perhaps the head of the House Committee on Science should look into that.