Unscientific America Quotes

“we need a nation in which science has far more prominence in politics and the media, far more relevance to the life of every American, far more intersections with other walks of life, and ultimately, far more influence where it truly matters—namely, in setting the agenda for the future as far out as we can possibly glimpse it.”
― Chris C. Mooney, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future

“Politicians are notorious for their cynical use of scientific information; in the U.S. Congress, where only 8 percent of elected officials hold a science or medical Ph.D., scientific studies are regularly used as an excuse for doing nothing. Calling for “more research” is an excellent way of punting. At the same time, politicians are notorious for digging up scientific “facts” that appear to support what they already wanted to do anyway.”
― Chris C. Mooney, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future

“In The Demon-Haunted World (1996), the final book published before his death, Carl Sagan worried openly that the forces of darkness were beating out those of scientific enlightenment: I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time . . . when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.”
― Chris C. Mooney, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future

“we need a nation in which science has far more prominence in politics and the media, far more relevance to the life of every American, far more intersections with other walks of life, and ultimately, far more influence where it truly matters—namely, in setting the agenda for the future as far out as we can possibly glimpse it. That would be a scientific America, and its citizens would be as scientifically literate as anyone could reasonably hope for.”
― Chris C. Mooney, Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future