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Friday, June 14, 2013

How Science Pages on Facebook Are Influencing Politics

There are many excellent pages on Facebook focusing on science and the most popular of these with over 5.6 million "likes" is I F#@%ing Love Science and its child-friendly mirror page Science is Awesome. Pages such as these are educating people on the discoveries of science and inspiring more people to become interested in this subject. But these pages may be doing more than just educating people on science -they could be the foundation to improving the state of politics in countries such as the United States.
In the past, if one didn't finish high school or didn't continue their education by going to college, they weren't likely to ever be scientifically literate; and even if they did go to college, they may not have been scientifically literate after graduating. Today, we no longer need to go college in order to be scientifically literate, and Facebook makes it easier for those who are passionate about science to share their passion with others. But how can these pages have a positive effect on our politics?
When Astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson was asked if he would run for President he said, "One objective reality is that our government doesn't work, not because we have dysfunctional politicians, but because we have dysfunctional voters. As a scientist and educator, my goal… is not to become President and lead a dysfunctional electorate, but to enlighten the electorate so they might choose the right leaders in the first place."
Citizens often complain about how government is broken and some even think we need to get rid of government altogether. But they forget that government is made up of their own citizens and they are the ones who voted for them to lead the country in the first place. They are equally at fault for the country's problems whether they admit it or not.
Government is not the problem; it is the electorate not being scientifically literate and easily being manipulated into voting for politicians who have no business in government in the first place. If we vote for politicians who don't accept evolution as fact, then we can't be surprised when they try to teach "intelligent design" in the science classroom. If they don't accept the scientific evidence of climate change, then they won't be motivated to solve the problem - because to them, there isn't a problem to solve. And if they do accept the fact that earth is getting warmer but believe their savior will return before it gets too bad, then that is even worse as they may be hoping it gets bad.
There are many countries that would love to have a government that is set up like the United States'. America didn't become a great nation because of a lack of government; it became great due to how the government was structured. But no matter how well a government is set up, if the politicians aren't scientifically literate and are relying on gut feelings or faith when making decisions - then a government will not be able to solve problems effectively.
Science is the best tool we have for understanding our world and as Neil deGrasse Tyson has said, "Scientific literacy is an intellectual vaccine against the claims of charlatans who would exploit ignorance." If voters are becoming more scientifically literate due to these Facebook pages, then the number of voters making better decisions at the voting booth will go up as well. This leads to more politicians in office willing to look at the evidence when making decisions.
If you have not liked pages such as these, make sure you do and share posts you find interesting with your friends! Here are a few other great pages to check out - The UniverseThe Earth StoryScience CosmosSpace.comThe Beauty of Science & Reality, and Universlings for Science and Reason.

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