OPINION

Science is fine; politicizing it is what we don’t like: #tellusatoday

Readers react to the marches for science.

USA TODAY
Scientists and supporters in Los Angeles on April 22, 2017.

Hundreds of thousands of scientists and their advocates turned out around the country on Saturday to protest the “attack” on science from the Trump administration. Facebook comments are edited for clarity and grammar:

Nobody is disputing scientific evidence. What is being disputed is the interpretation of said evidence. We need to get back to the middle, after being way too far left for so long. America understands this, but liberals not so much.

— Bubba Jo Bubba

And who is better-suited to interpret scientific evidence than scientists? Politicians? Corporate heads? Religious leaders? I’ll trust any scientist before I trust anyone from those groups.

Rich Barnes

Sorry, this is not a march for science but a march for a political agenda. Science should stay as far away from politics as possible. Scientists making bold claims of the East Coast disappearing into the Atlantic and the ice caps disappearing within a decade have done more to discredit climate science than any “climate denier” could dream to do.

If scientists would stick to facts, and avoid these gloom and doom predictions that reek of politics, we would not even be having these discussions to begin with.

Christopher Linn

Science and politics have been joined at the hip for at least the past two decades. Bringing this fact out into the open is probably a healthy development. The “anti-science trend” is not so much anti-science as a rejection of the corruption of science by an ideology that seeks to employ it as a stalking horse for its politically motivated wish list — especially by the progressive left.

Chris Nelson

We have a situation where people who have a degree in a field of science seem to think that their hypothesis is a fact and that everyone must agree with them, and if they don’t they are labeled heretics. Just because someone with a degree says something doesn’t mean it’s true. Theories are based on data points and observations, often with a bias toward a popular trend in thinking.

Tim Morrison

Policing the USA

Our followers shared their thoughts on science marches and why some people question science. Tweets are edited for clarity and grammar:

In the 1970s, we had global cooling. Then we had global warming. Now they’re calling it climate change. I call it nonsense.

@tortalinni

I believe understanding science takes time, which in today’s era of instant gratification there’s no time for.

@DWigt165

Because some of us are old enough to remember when scientists were screaming about another ice age.

@JohnRKelleyII

The whole world is what it is because of science, yet people still question it.

@mpgdev

Science is not about belief; it’s about facts.

@bluedgal

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