Longer post coming on truth and fact soon, but for now, MrEd: All humans are concerned with Truth . . . All Scientists (that we know of) are human . . . ergo, Scientist are concerned with Truth. Simple logic.

Facts are a way station to Truth.

Applies to Lieberman on Healthcare (and seemingly any other issues he’s every claimed to care about . . . it’s it telling to note that his name cannot be spelled without L I E?), the entirety of Congress, the President, and me (although I’m one of the lucky ones who gets paid to search for truth . . . thank goodness for google.)

Agreed, we have to establish term limits in order to begin to reclaim our nation from “special interest” groups like Bankers, Overpaid CEOs, Insurance Companies, Drug Companies, and (dare I say it . . . yes, I dare) the Industrial Military Complex (along with Military Commanders who conveniently forget that the chain of command doesn’t end with them but rather with ME and the 300 million others who pay their salary.)

Whatever happened to that part of the infamous “Contract With America” that Gingrich rode into town on? Oh yeah, the President got a BJ! However would the nation survive without professional politicians to save us all!

We need to fire them all after two terms (although assuming that a congressman starts at the state level, it’s still possible for one person to spend an entire career in “politics.”)

Maybe we need a “time in Washington DC Limit!” No more than 10 years? 8?

Can I have a pillow, too?

Science is concerned with fact, not truth. Now, facts can be interpreted differently, and those interpretations can lead to different hypotheses, but ultimately the scientist seeks fact, not truth. Facts are testable, observable, and reproducable.

Truth is the playground of the philosopher and the priest and is not the same thing as fact (though–I would argue–equally important). Truth is a matter of perspective. What is a fact for one is a fact for all. What is true for one may or may not be true for another. Fine line, I know, but an important one.

Religion has nothing to do with fact. Never has, never will. If it did, there would be no need for faith. Religion is concerned with truth, and as with any “truth,” it is not universal. One size does not fit all.

Seriously, though, I think we ignore climate change at our peril, whether all scientists and politicians agree or not. When it comes to the earth, I would rather err on the side of caution. But let’s face it, as long as we employ career politicians, their agenda (left and right, democrat and republican) will be the corporate agenda. If you want politics out of science, start with term limits for all politicians, followed by campaign spending limits and a new fairness doctrine. Unless that happens first, nothing else will change.

Science and religion, as seekers of truth, have a place in politics. But politics shouldn’t have a place in science or religion. (Less true in religion, since it is looking at the mystical instead of the emperical, but still less politics is gooder, if you’ll pardon my poor English.)

Politics, on the other hand, is about justice. Justice is not, despite the rumor, about truth. It should be about justice, anyway. Instead, it is about power. And that is probably why I’m so down on it right now, having recently moved into the powerless. So even in my own life I can’t get away from the damn politics of the moment.

We can never remove politics from science. There will always be political implications to our scientific discoveries. The best we can hope to do is continue to promote the importance of science for science’s sake/education for education’s sake.

Peer review actually does limit the acceptance of BS in the scientific community. It would be nice if something similar could be employed in politics.

The most significant danger that we face today is not from the politicization of science, but rather the removal of science from politics. Science is remarkably similar to religion in that it is seeking after Truth. If we lose this desire for Truth in the social experiment we call politics, we will have lost society altogether.