Alas, as you might expect from Mooney's chosen title, this page or two of "balance" gives way to the tedious habit of all sides in the Culture War -- squeezing complex issues along a cramped
left-right political axis, inherited from the French Revolution -- a dismal and demeaning metaphor that nobody can define. Regrettable is Mooney's oversimplification that "big business" has lined up against science. Not all capitalists or conservatives resist the notion of fine-tuning market forces to match our evolving understanding of the world. Moreover, it was Republican President George Herbert Walker Bush who said in 1990: "Science relies on freedom of inquiry, and government relies on the impartial perspective of science for guidance."
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The "war on science" is better defined along a completely different axis:
Future vs. past. On one side are traits that dominated nearly all other cultures and eras: nostalgia, faith in dogmatic incantations and a reactionary fear of change. On the other side are qualities compatible
only with a scientific age: pragmatism, confidence, and eagerness to confront change. Plus -- perhaps -- a deeper assumption: That any Creator (if one exists) will approve of children who study and use His tools.