Scientific Injustice

 

My background is in a scientific field. As such, I have become interested and familiar with the ways that science intersects with society and policy-making. 

There are a lot of examples where the views of the scientific community differ with the views of policy-makers, politicians, and the rest of the population as a whole. 

However, a fair question to ask is: Is there really science-related injustice?

People are entitled to their own opinions, right, so what gives anyone the right to tell anyone else what to believe when it comes any subject, let alone science?

To me, the answer is that there is an injustice when scientific knowledge is distorted and abused. We need only figure out who the victims are.

Who are the victims of scientific distortion? The answer is, very many people, and I'm not even going to count actual scientists.

First, the citizens who are represented by denialists and science distorters. These representatives end up creating policies and laws that push their constituents in the direction of the stone age, rather than the direction of progress.

Second, the children of parents who live their lives based on flawed scientific thinking. They subject their children to flawed education, and substandard medical treatment. Their children either being unable to follow career paths into the Science, Engineering, Math, or Medical fields, or they end up being stuck far behind their peers, handicapped by having to unlearn years of forced misinformation. Do these parents want their children to have the life expectancy of the 1800s, rather than the 2000s? Do they not want their children to become doctors, scientists, or engineers? Apparently not, if it means questioning their beliefs.

Third, our country as a whole ends up being perceived as intellectually inferior than the rest of the world. Battles are being waged across the country between people who want their children to learn sound science in the classroom and people who want to not only restrict their kids' thinking, but the rest of the kids in their classrooms. Meanwhile, other countries are busy teaching their children to overtake ours in the science and medical fields at alarming rates. 

Science has the power to save lives.

Science has the power to improve living standards.

Science has the power to change the world for the better.

And yet people are willing to compromise that for their own irrational beliefs.

This is an injustice.