Swedes entertain skepticism much better than U.S. residents do, or they attain much better understanding of science.
That conclusion can be deduced from the results of a poll showing that 23% of Swedes think astrology is scientific. Most poll results show more Americans put stock in their daily horoscopes than the 23% of Swedes, but not a lot more.
Swedes really doubt intelligent design: Only 14% think there is any science there.
The poll was conducted by the Swedish group Vetenskap & Allmänhet (Public and Science) (VA).
So, contrary to the recent efforts of Seattle’s Discovery Institute to make inroads in Europe, their push for intelligent design is just more than half as credible as Sidney Omar and other fortune tellers.
The poll found support for science and hope for good results from research very high among Swedes:
Nine out of ten people have high confidence in the potential of research to develop more effective and environmentally friendly sources of energy. A smaller but increasing proportion believes that research can contribute to reducing segregation in cities.
Seven out of ten people believe that there is a strong possibility that research will help increase economic growth, which represents a marked increase since 2005. Six out of ten believe that there is a strong chance that research can help reduce climate change.
The poll also hints at a way scientists can more successfully argue against crackpottery and crank science, such as intelligent design: Emphasize the benefits people get from applied research.
Research areas that are currently in the news tend to be viewed by many as important. Most people would like to see support for research that people can benefit directly from, says Karin Hermannson, Research Manager at VA.
Scientists in the U.S. should spend more time explaining how their research is used in the real world.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
SCIENCE AND SCIENTIST
Inquiring into the Origin of Matter and Life
January-March 2008
Bhaktivedanata Institute’s latest quarterly newsletter
is now available online.
You can download the January-March 2008 issue from:
http://scienceandscientist.org/current.php
______________________________ ______________________________ __
What’s it about?
Modern science has generally been directed toward investigating
the material world, excluding consideration of the conscious
scientist who is essential to the whole process, since, of
course, the very existence of the scientific endeavor itself
depends upon consciousness. Complete scientific knowledge must
consequently include both objective science and subjective
consciousness.
In addition to other programs, Bhaktivedanta Institute’s Science
and Scientist Newsletter is humbly offered to inspire scientists
and scholars to contribute their sincere efforts toward
developing this grand synthesis. The result will be valuable not
only for helping to better understand the “hard” problems of
science such as the nature and origin of life and the cosmos, the
mind-brain connection, artificial intelligence, etc. But the
pressing problems of ethics in science, world peace, and
interfaith dialog will also benefit from a more inclusive
scientific worldview.
In our modern era science and religion are the predominating
influences determining the fate of mankind. Promoting and
developing a culture of harmony between such diverse fields has
the potential to expand our conception of reality and advance
human knowledge in the new millennium, in which it is said the
study of life will be pre-eminent. Let us welcome the dawn of
that new epoch with great hope and determined endeavor.
______________________________ ______________________________ __
Newsletter Homepage: http://www.scienceandscientist.org
Newsletter Subscription:
http://www.scienceandscientist.org/subscribe.html
Please send comments/questions to:
editors@scienceandscientist.org
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Dear Devotees and Friends:
Please accept our humble dandavats.
Hare Krsna.
We have uploaded last week’s ‘Satsanga MP3’ and to download please
click Satsanga: 03 March 2008
(http://www.archive.org/download/SatsangasMarch2008/03_Feb_2008_HH_BMPS_BI_Weekly_Satsanga.mp3)
. In the Satsanga HH Bhakti Madhava Puri Swami (serving director of
Bhaktivedanta Institute) explained devotees about the recent claims by
some scientists under the leadership of Craig Venter in which they have
claimed to have created the largest man-made DNA structure by
synthesizing and assembling the 582,970 base pair genome of a bacterium,
Mycoplasma genitalium JCVI-1.0 (
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080124175924.htm ). They
have also claimed that their team will attempt to create a living
bacterial cell based entirely on the synthetically made genome. Even though
the claims are quite tall, there are also several strong critics in the
scientific community like Carl Zimmer (
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/commentary/dissection/2008/01/dissection_0125
). Carl Zimmer says, “there is a lot we don’t understand about life, of
course, but Venter’s project isn’t going to answer all the questions.”
HH Bhakti Madhava Puri Swami, explained the technical difficulties that
are today inherent in modern science towards explaining life, inspite
of the extensive research by the scientists all over the world,
including the Venter Institute. The Vedantic conception is that life is
completely transcendental to the assembly of molecules and it is never a by
product or emergent product of molecular interactions.
You may visit http://my.podcast.com/Satsanga to know the details about
joining process for the online ‘Weekly Satsangas’. All past Satsanga
MP3s month wise can be found below:
Satsanga MP3s: March 2008 (
http://www.archive.org/details/SatsangasMarch2008 )
Satsanga MP3s: February 2008 (
http://www.archive.org/details/SatsangasFebruary2008 )
Satsanga MP3s: January 2008 (
http://www.archive.org/details/SatsangasJanuary2008 )
Satsanga MP3s: December 2007 (
http://www.archive.org/details/SatsangasDecember2007 )
Satsanga MP3s: November 2007 (
http://www.archive.org/details/SatsangasNovember2007 )
Satsanga MP3s: October 2007 (
http://www.archive.org/details/SatsangasOctober2007 )
Satsanga MP3s: September 2007 (
http://www.archive.org/details/SatsangasSeptember2007 )
Satsanga MP3s: August 2007 (
http://www.archive.org/details/SatsangasAugust2007 )
Satsanga MP3s: July 2007 (
http://www.archive.org/details/SatsangasJuly2007 )
All Glories all Sadhus, Guru and Vaisnavas.
Thanking you.
Your humble servants
Purushottama Jagannatha Das &
Sushen Das
Skype ID : sushen_das
Google Talk ID: jaga.suresh
Yahoo Mesanger ID: suresh_bbsr2000
Contact emails: sushen_das@binstitute.org or suresh_bbsr2000@yahoo.com
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We thought you might be interested to know that –
Bhaktivedanata Institute introduced a new
quarterly online newsletter
SCIENCE AND SCIENTIST
Inquiring into the Origin of Matter and Life
You can read the inaugural issue by downloading it from:
http://www.scienceandscientist.org/October07.html
______________________________________________________________
What’s it about?
Modern science has generally been directed toward investigating
the material world, excluding consideration of the conscious
scientist who is essential to the whole process, since, of
course, the very existence of the scientific endeavor itself
depends upon consciousness. Complete scientific knowledge must
consequently include both objective science and subjective
consciousness.
In addition to other programs, Bhaktivedanta Institute’s Science
and Scientist Newsletter is humbly offered to inspire scientists
and scholars to contribute their sincere efforts toward
developing this grand synthesis. The result will be valuable not
only for helping to better understand the “hard” problems of
science such as the nature and origin of life and the cosmos, the
mind-brain connection, artificial intelligence, etc. But the
pressing problems of ethics in science, world peace, and
interfaith dialog will also benefit from a more inclusive
scientific worldview.
In our modern era science and religion are the predominating
influences determining the fate of mankind. Promoting and
developing a culture of harmony between such diverse fields has
the potential to expand our conception of reality and advance
human knowledge in the new millennium, in which it is said the
study of life will be pre-eminent. Let us welcome the dawn of
that new epoch with great hope and determined endeavor.
______________________________________________________________
Newsletter Homepage: http://www.scienceandscientist.org
Newsletter Subscription:
http://www.scienceandscientist.org/subscribe.html
For comments and questions please write to editorial team:
editors@scienceandscientist.org
To Unsubscribe please visit the page:
http://www.scienceandscientist.org/unsubscribe.html
Bhaktivedanata Institute
http://www.binstitute.org
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