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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: one_less who wrote (571628)	6/14/2010 8:35:49 PM
From: koan	1 Recommendation Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1577224

Read the study below less and then comment. It explains why the GOP is alienating scientsts. You are confusing this statistic for no reason except to argue or rationalize. The statistic is, what it is, and it was a highly respected PEW poll. Here is the article and link: Only Six Percent Of Scientists Are Republicans: Pew Poll huffingtonpost.com A new study by the Pew Research Center finds that the GOP is alienating scientists to a startling degree. Only six percent of America's scientists identify themselves as Republicans; fifty-five percent call themselves Democrats. By comparison, 23 percent of the overall public considers itself Republican, while 35 percent say they're Democrats. The ideological discrepancies were similar. Nine percent of scientists said they were "conservative" while 52 percent described themselves as "liberal," and 14 percent "very liberal." The corresponding figures for the general public were 37, 20 and 5 percent. Among the general public, moderates and independents ranked higher than any party or ideology. But among scientists, there were considerably more Democrats (55%) than independents (32%) and Republicans (6%) put together. There were also more liberals (52%) than moderates (35%) and conservatives (9%) combined. "These results were not a complete surprise," said Scott Keeter, Director of Survey Research at Pew, in an interview with the Huffington Post. He said they can be mostly attributed to "the difference between Democratic and Republican parties with respect to issues." The wide ideological and partisan gap among scientists may have been exacerbated by the Bush administration, which often disputed broad scientific consensus on topics such as evolution and climate change. Keeter acknowledged this factor, but said that "many of these disputes probably predate the Bush administration," noting that scientists have favored liberal views in numerous past studies. Story continues below Religion also plays a role. Republicans tend to promote the centrality of religion more often than Democrats, and while 95 percent of the public said they believe in "God" or "a higher power," only 51 percent of scientists claimed either. "Many Republicans, especially the Evangelical wing of the party, are skeptical of evolution, and have argued for the teaching of creationism and intelligent design in school," said Keeter. The results could merely be a reflection of how scientists see the world, rather than of partisan loyalties. In a series of questions posed, the study found that the answers of scientists were consistently more in line with liberal viewpoints than those of the general public. "The Republican Party has a number of leaders within it who have challenged the accuracy of scientific findings on issues such as climate change, evolution and stem cell research," Keeter told the Huffington Post. "It suggests that scientists who are Republicans might feel some dissonance from the party's position on some things that are important to them. And while there are Republicans in the scientist sample, there are really not that many," he said. Get HuffPost Politics On Facebook and Twitter! A new study by the Pew Research Center finds that the GOP is alienating scientists to a startling degree. Only six percent of America's scientists identify themselves as Republicans; fifty-five perce... A new study by the Pew Research Center finds that the GOP is alienating scientists to a startling degree. Only six percent of America's scientists identify themselves as Republicans; fifty-five perce... Related News On Huffington Post: Curtis Coleman, GOP Senate Candidate, Compares Stem Cell Research To Nazi Experiments LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Arkansas says he sees no need to apologize for comparing stem cell... Creationism And Intelligent Design Gain Foothold In Turkey With direct and indirect help from American foes of evolution, similarly-minded Turks have aggressively made the case that Charles Darwin's theory is scientifically wrong and... Curtis Coleman, GOP Senate Candidate, Compares Stem Cell Research To Nazi Experiments LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A Republican candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Arkansas says he sees no need to apologize for comparing stem cell... Creationism And Intelligent Design Gain Foothold In Turkey With direct and indirect help from American foes of evolution, similarly-minded Turks have aggressively made the case that Charles Darwin's theory is scientifically wrong and... Read more from Huffington Post bloggers: Cara L. Santa Maria: Is Science Just a New Religion? Once intelligent design squeezes its way into the pages following evolution in our biology books, we might as well add astrology to our astrophysics lectures and toss some alchemy into the chemistry lab. Robert Slayton: War Wounds Miracles, in other words, may be possible, if we can unleash our scientists and doctors to move ahead with new techniques to heal the sick and damaged.