Day 1221, Science, Faith, and Politics 

 

Before Kopernik, the Earth had stood still.  (1)

When Mik said it moved, objections were shrill.

Galileo weighed in; the Church screamed, “NO!”

And he had to recant, a bitter pill.

 

But now we are sure how the heavens go.  (2)

Earth orbits the sun, though the Church screamed, “NO!”

When faith opposed science, the data won;

Republicans now are science’s foe.

 

A new challenge; COVID’s the one.

How many will die ’til its course is run?

The president fights what scientists say,

Which more will die before we are done.

 

We have to listen to what Trump’s guts say,

As he’s spreading bullshit, day after day.

Some of his statements are sheer lunacy;

Inject some Lysol; the bug goes away.

 

There’s too much science illiteracy,

Religious, political fantasy.

Preachers won’t cure us; our scientists will.

Listen to Fauci; we need cogency.

 

(1)  Mikolaj Kopernik, better known by his Latinized name: Nicholas Copernicus. He proposed the heliocentric model of the solar system in 1453.

(2)  Galileo paraphrased Cardinal Baronius, the Vatican librarian, saying, “The Bible teaches us how to go to heaven, not how the heavens go.”  Somehow, Baronius kept his job.  By order of the Inquisition, Galileo spent the last eight years of his life under house arrest.