Category: Politics

Autism isn’t necessarily something to do with vaccinations, you know. Simon Baron-Cohen sees connections with the male brain:

One needs to be extremely careful in advancing a cause for autism, because this field is rife with theories that have collapsed under empirical scrutiny. Nonetheless, my hypothesis is that autism is the genetic result of “assortative mating” between parents who are both strong systemizers. Assortative mating is the term we use when like is attracted to like, and there are four significant reasons to believe it is happening here.

FIRST, both mothers and fathers of children with autism complete the embedded figures test faster than men and women in the general population.

Second, both mothers and fathers of children with autism are more likely to have fathers who are talented systemizers (engineers, for example).

Third, when we look at brain activity with magnetic resonance imaging, males and females on average show different patterns while performing empathizing or systemizing tasks. But both mothers and fathers of children with autism show strong male patterns of brain activity.

Fourth, both mothers and fathers of children with autism score above average on a questionnaire that measures how many autistic traits an individual has. These results suggest a genetic cause of autism, with both parents contributing genes that ultimately relate to a similar kind of mind: one with an affinity for thinking systematically.

Read it all to see how Larry Summers fits into the story.

Krugman’s recent column attributing intelligent design to a Vast Right Wing Think Tank Conspiracy draws the ire of the Prometheus blog:

Unlike most areas of science, in the case of evolution there really is no “excess of objectivity” and Krugman is certainly right about that. But by making the general case that scientific facts compel particular ideological outcomes, Krugman is legitimizing the very strategy employed by conservative think tanks (and today also embraced by liberal think tanks) that debates that are really about values can be effectively turned into debates putatively about science.

On the role of science in politics, Krugman finds considerable room for agreement with his conservative opponents. As much as anything, this area of liberal-conservative agreement helps to explain the increasing politicization of science in the United States.

This leap to the idea that research compels certain policies is one of the more disturbing errors we see on leftwing science blogs.

Leftwing partisan attack scientist Chris Mooney (of The American Prospect) is upset with Prometheus for daring to critcize Krugman.

This crap is just plain wrong:

WASHINGTON (Aug. 2) – President Bush said Monday he believes schools should discuss ”intelligent design” alongside evolution when teaching students about the creation of life.

During a round-table interview with reporters from five Texas newspapers, Bush declined to go into detail on his personal views of the origin of life. But he said students should learn about both theories, Knight Ridder Newspapers reported.

”I think that part of education is to expose people to different schools of thought,” Bush said. ”You’re asking me whether or not people ought to be exposed to different ideas, the answer is yes.”

There are too many “different ideas” about how we came to be to teach them all, so the schools should focus on elements of the science curriculum that actually, you know, relate to science. The next thing we know they’ll be teaching Native American creation myths, Scientology, and Zen Buddhism.

This insane embrace of religiosity, which we saw in the Schiavo matter as well, will push voters to the Democrats in coming elections. I’ve personally said I’d vote for Hillary before I’d vote for a religious nut, and I meant it.

H/T Right Wing Nut House and Politburo Diktat.

UPDATE: It bears pointing out that the Democrats are no more “pro-science” than the Republicans, generally speaking. Democrats would import all sorts of ethnic creation myths into science classes in the name of multiculturalism, and they’ve already wrecked the social sciences with their gender mythology.

Science is the natural enemy of politics.

UPDATE AGAIN: Instapundit has a google of links on the subject. It’s heart-warming to see so many Republicans refusing to issue the president a free pass on this gaffe. Roger Simon is on the case too.

UPDATE SOME MORE: Jeff Goldstein is taking the side of the morons and so is Simon Says, because they fail to realize the agenda behind ID. We’ve covered this before, so please start with the Wedge Strategy document from the Discovery Institute. ID was invented by their employees in hopes of increasing the religiosity of American life. Whether you think that’s a good idea or a bad one, it’s against the law to use tax dollars to cram religion down the throats of public school children, and it better remain that way. Here are some quotes:

The proposition that human beings are created in the image of God is one of the bedrock principles on which Western civilization was built. Its influence can be detected in most, if not all, of the West’s greatest achievements, including representative democracy, human rights, free enterprise, and progress in the arts and sciences.

Yet a little over a century ago, this cardinal idea came under wholesale attack by intellectuals drawing on the discoveries of modern science. Debunking the traditional conceptions of both God and man, thinkers such as Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud portrayed humans not as moral and spiritual beings, but as animals or machines who inhabited a universe ruled by purely impersonal forces and whose behavior and very thoughts were dictated by the unbending forces of biology, chemistry, and environment. This materialistic conception of reality eventually infected virtually every area of our culture, from politics and economics to literature and art

The cultural consequences of this triumph of materialism were devastating. Materialists denied the existence of objective moral standards, claiming that environment dictates our behavior and beliefs. Such moral relativism was uncritically adopted by much of the social sciences, and it still undergirds much of modern economics, political science, psychology and sociology.

Materialists also undermined personal responsibility by asserting that human thoughts and behaviors are dictated by our biology and environment. The results can be seen in modern approaches to criminal justice, product liability, and welfare. In the materialist scheme of things, everyone is a victim and no one can be held accountable for his or her actions.

Finally, materialism spawned a virulent strain of utopianism. Thinking they could engineer the perfect society through the application of scientific knowledge, materialist reformers advocated coercive government programs that falsely promised to create heaven on earth.

Discovery Institute’s Center for the Renewal of Science and Culture seeks nothing less than the overthrow of materialism and its cultural legacies. Bringing together leading scholars from the natural sciences and those from the humanities and social sciences, the Center explores how new developments in biology, physics and cognitive science raise serious doubts about scientific materialism and have re-opened the case for a broadly theistic understanding of nature. The Center awards fellowships for original research, holds conferences, and briefs policymakers about the opportunities for life after materialism.

Any questions?