{"id":684,"date":"2014-04-08T11:18:21","date_gmt":"2014-04-08T18:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/?p=684"},"modified":"2019-06-21T13:25:50","modified_gmt":"2019-06-21T20:25:50","slug":"evidence-or-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/?p=684","title":{"rendered":"Evidence or Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A friend with conservative inclinations forwarded a story concerning Patrick Moore, identified in the brief as a co-founder of the environmental group Greenpeace, who spoke out against man-made global warming before the US Senate. The Congressional findings were published February 25, 2014. Mr. Moore died in 2012, making cross-examination of this known radical, ultra-right winger a mute point. Moore once famously said, “I may be accused of being a dinosaur, but I would remind you that dinosaurs ruled the Earth for a very long time.” Perhaps Fox News<\/strong><\/a> may next question the extinction of dinosaurs, since they failed to mention the passing of Mr. Moore.<\/p>\n

The ploy of conservative Fox News could not be more transparent. Quoting from a dead curmudgeon attempts to sway opinion based on progressive association about subjects of which Moore had no particular expertise, is a non sequitur. Others opposed to notions of global warming, should not confuse science with politics, for this is a game played by purely anecdotal means, without evidential support.<\/p>\n

When social advocates use science as an aid in shaping human behavior, the procedure becomes muddy from all the back-dealing and underhandedness required to pass political legislation. Such action does not take away from the work of science, nor can opinion alter the facts. Politics is the ugly step-sister made up to be the prom queen, doing all the heavy lifting to influence human judgment.<\/p>\n

Examine the historical process which campaigned successfully to stigmatize tobacco. Cigarette companies offered similar counter-arguments, lack of proof, large costs to the economy, etc. in a fight against what today is commonly acknowledged to be unhealthy behavior, and that which we as a society discourage through enforced sanctions and limited product accessibility.<\/p>\n

Science made the unquestionable connection between tobacco and disease and life expectancy, but the social\/political arena had the tough job of selling the cure to the public at large. This is not a black or white issue. Personal freedom becomes restricted through prohibitive legislation. Is this justified by a nod to the common good? Opinions vary. But the science is correct. How this evidence is applied; there is the rub.<\/p>\n

Knocking science in the twenty-first century is a losing battle. Superstition or denial, both are mind-killers, unworthy of discussion. Let us argue application instead, cost vs gain for the individual and society in general.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 A friend with conservative inclinations forwarded a story concerning Patrick Moore, identified in the brief as a co-founder of the environmental group Greenpeace, who spoke out against man-made global warming before the US Senate. The Congressional findings were published February 25, 2014. Mr. Moore died in 2012, making cross-examination of this known radical, ultra-right […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[11,8,12],"class_list":["post-684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-science","tag-global-warming","tag-public-opinion","tag-scientific-methodology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=684"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":944,"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/684\/revisions\/944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lesstoprofess.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}