NCSE defends the teaching of evolution and climate change, two topics on which there is considerable scientific consensus but strong ideological pushback from the general public. How does one change the perception of the public to more closely parallel that of scientists? The normal reaction of scientists is to bemoan the quality of science education, and propose that more and better science instruction will solve the problem. However, multifactorial problems require multifactorial solutions, and the rejection by a substantial proportion of the public of well-established science is certainly multifactorial. We need to go beyond science (and science education) to consider the underlying ideological sources of the rejection and how best to deal with them.

A presentation at the
Symposium honoring the retirement of Dr. Rudy Baum
at the
244th Annual Meeting of the
American Chemical Society

In 2012 the Tennessee legislature passed an “Academic Freedom Act” which called for teaching the “strengths and weaknesses” of allegedly controversial subjects such as evolution, global warming, origin of life, and human cloning. Rather than being just an oddity in the state of Tennessee, more than 40 of these laws have cropped up in state legislatures in every region of the country. Because they are patently injurious to science education, citizens need to oppose the passage of these bills – as well as contend for a basic level of science literacy that would make such bills impossible to contemplate.

CSICON Nashville
is sponsored by the
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry