Anti-Science and the Assault on Democracy: Defending Reason in a Free Society [Hardcover]

Since the birth of the United States, science and democracy have been inextricably intertwined, feeding one another and bending the arc of the moral universe ever upward. Unfortunately, when scientific facts conflict with deeply held religious or political beliefs, it is almost always science that gets sacrificed. What can we do about this problem? Anti-Science and the Assault on Democracy provides a multitude of voices on causes and solutions. It is an invaluable volume that should be on the desk of all 535 members of Congress, every state governor, and every member of the presidential administration, including and especially the president himself. An indispensable contribution to the future of the republic.?Michael Shermer, publisher of Skeptic magazine, monthly columnist for Scientific American, Presidential Fellow at Chapman University, and author of The Believing Brain, The Moral Arc, and Heavens on EarthThis book astutely diagnoses one of the main ailments afflicting democracy in our post-truth worldthe overvaluing of feeling, intuition, and first-person experience. As a corrective for the relativism, cognitive bias, and motivated reasoning of subjective perception, it offers a more reliable prescription: apply to public discourse the scientific method of critical thinking, empirical evidence, and rigorous peer review.Ralph Lewis, MD, psychiatrist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, and author of Finding Purpose in a Godless WorldDemocratic civilization is fragile, just a set of agreements and choices made moment by moment, mind by mind. When those minds cannot distinguish between good and bad evidence for a claim, pseudoscience and anti-science rise. The principles of scientific inquiry can be grasped by a kindergartner but must be continuously reinforced.?Anti-Science and the Assault?on Democracy?helps to instill these principles.?Cameron M. Smith, PhD, Department of Anthropology, Portland State UniversityAs scientific institutions find l£Í