The Anti-Science Left? Rebutting Michael Shermer

Obama: Alan Freed / Shutterstock.com, dinosaur: DM7/Flickr

Following on the last post, I can now share my written Mother Jones rebuttal to Michael Shermer on the left, the right, and science.

Shermer penned a piece on the “Liberal War on Science” in Scientific American–I explain why he’s way off. This, in particular, is noteworthy:

“Shermer’s article ends with a statement that, as far as I can tell, is just incorrect: ‘Surveys show that moderate liberals and conservatives embrace science roughly equally,’ he writes. I’m not sure where he gets this, but for a direct rebuttal let me point you to a recent study in the American Sociological Review by Gordon Gauchat, which finds that unlike liberals or moderates, conservatives have lost trust in science rather precipitously over the past several decades.”

You can read the full item here.