Your Opinion: Throwing snowballs at scientific data

Dear Editor:

Should public servants pay a price for cartoonish behavior? We hope for serious and thoughtful representation. Last week Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe took to the Senate floor, pulled a snowball from a bag and said he was throwing it at President Obama. As always he proclaimed that global warming is a hoax (Feb. 26). Funny stuff? His Missouri cheerleaders, Sen. Blunt and Rep. Leutkemeyer must be happy.

Inhofe then scoffed at the recent NASA and NOA reporting of record 2014 high temperatures. His rebuttal of facts was a snowball. It's data versus a snowball. Interestingly this appeals to millions of Americans. The idea that life as we now live it may be threatened by our own behavior is simply unbelievable and unacceptable to a very large number of Americans.

History shows that facts mean little when it comes to forming public opinion. During World War I both the British and the German governments engaged in massive propaganda campaigns to shape the opinions of their public against their enemies. From this successful work, Joseph Goebbels learned his craft which he applied in Nazi Germany in the 1930's and 1940's. One element of propaganda is the "big lie." If you only tell a "big lie" once it has no effect. You must tell it repeatedly and with passion. Doing this fools a very large number of people into believing that the source would not be saying this if it was not true.

The current edition of "The National Geographic" magazine has a cover story on the "War on Science." Liberals like to think only dim-witted conservatives reject scientific facts. Not really! The second biggest group of non-believers concerning evolution are the black Christian community. Many liberal parents join the vaccination abstinence movement. Liberals are mostly the ones against GMO's (genetically modified foods).

Science is hard even for some scientists. It is not about opinions. Science is a process of observations and all scientists who produce scientific work have that work evaluated by fellow scientists. Some science critics say it is like a religion. That is far from the truth. Religion does not scrutinize itself like science. Religion and science fulfill entirely different roles.

When public officials like Sen. Inhofe mock science they prove nothing. Is the goal of public servants like Inhofe, Blunt and Leutkemeyer to simply create public confusion about serious issues? This is dishonest, as well as harmful.

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