Day 522, When truth becomes political
When truth becomes political,
Religion gets involved,
Some facts become inimical,
Beliefs might be dissolved,
Then scientific arguments,
Though cogent, clear and strong,
Will likely face such strong dissent,
They’ll be dismissed as wrong.
Should we let accidents of birth,
Religion, politics,
Determine what a “fact” is worth,
What “information” sticks?
Religions mostly accidents?
And politics as well?
For most, they’re just a consequence
Of homes where children dwell.
When science says, “Be rational,
“Go on and change your mind,”
Strong faith, that’s more devotional,
Says, “Do not change your mind.”
The Earth is warming; we evolved;
Immunization: wise.
Our science has these problems solved.
Believers call them lies.
Religious, right-wing politics
Forbids the mind to stray
To science when a fact conflicts
With what faith has to say.
The faithful mind, is hard to change
By data-driven facts,
That style of thinking is too strange;.
One’s faith must not relax.
The skeptic’s mind admits no god.
No heaven and no hell.
To them, the faithful mind is flawed
That fears the infidel.
Is there a way to reconcile
New data with belief?
Will these forever be hostile,
And give each other grief?
It’s always hard to change your mind,
Particularly when
New data put you in a bind
Where you can’t say, “Amen.”
To change what you have always “known,”,
When data show you must,
May often shake you to the bone,
Destroying what you trust.
When Galileo’s data showed
Copernicus was right,
Afraid their dogma might implode,
The Church commenced a fight.
The Earth went ‘round the sun? How brash!
Such thoughts were labeled sins.
But when the Church and science clash,
Then science always wins.
So, faith and politics evolve;
As time moves on, we change.
Our faith-based errors will dissolve,
But we must think long-range.
So, scientists: don’t just insist,
Insisting constipates.
Conservatives: don’t just resist;
To know truth liberates.