Letter: It’s not religion — it’s propaganda

Thursday, Jan. 5, 2006 | 8:02 a.m.

As a scientist and a philosopher, Paul Campos makes a fine lawyer for the right-wing politicians. His column in the Jan. 2 Sun says that science is a "belief system." He further maintains that the Dover, Pa., ruling against "intelligent design" is an attack on the First Amendment right of free speech.

Incredibly, Campos uses Bertrand Russell, an agnostic, to support the idea that science may beg the question by assuming what it wishes to prove. Mr. Campos then calls science a "metaphysical orthodoxy."

Science assumes that our senses perceive a reality that can be verified, but it is not democratic. Peer review by objective scientists presents a mainstream view, and the will to doubt is essential to science, but Campos wishes to politicize the process. "Balance" cannot be achieved by elevating intuition to the level of observation or by collecting the opinions of many pseudoscientists who overemphasize scientific uncertainty.

In fact, what author Chris Mooney calls in his book "The Republican War on Science" is not primarily about religion at all but about propaganda used to counter scientific studies that show that our highly profitable companies may be making those profits at the expense of the health of the environment and of our citizens.

When right-wingers manufacture their own evidence, it's called "sound science." It is that very "sound science" that says Yucca Mountain is a great place to store nuclear poison, that cutting down trees makes healthy forests and that polluting the air makes it clean.

That is not science, religion or philosophy -- it's propaganda.

Jerry Bitts

Las Vegas