CONSERVATISM AND SCIENCE

I agree with John Derbyshire that science is being attacked by an unholy alliance between the religious right and the p.c. left. I think he under-estimates the danger from the right, but his broader point is correct. The deeper reality is that the religious right and p.c. left are merely two sides of the same coin: both have contempt for truly liberal education. They both put their own notions of virtue above the principle of unfettered thinking and research. Both require resisting, just as the fundamentalist distortions of Islam and Christianity deserve resisting.