There are those who disagree with modern science concerning such matters as evolution and the age of the universe, desiring, instead, to adhere to their interpretation of the Bible. Some of these are actually in the government, in positions of power:
Representative Paul Broun, who sits on the House Committee on Science and Technology, recently stated that it was his belief that the Universe is only 9,000 years old.
Alex Knapp at Forbes points out the implications of this:
...if Broun is right and physicists are wrong, then we have a real
problem. Virtually all modern technology relies on optics in some way,
shape or form. And in the science of optics, the fact that the speed of
light is constant in a vacuum is taken for granted. But the speed of
light must not be constant if the universe is only 9,000 years old. It
must be capable of being much, much faster. That means that the
fundamental physics underlying the Internet, DVDs, laser surgery, and
many many more critical parts of the economy are based on bad science.
The consequences of that could be drastic, given our dependence on
optics for our economic growth.
It's not just that the fundamentalists get the science wrong, it's the practical implications that are worrying. If we were to abandon science to appease them, we would also have to abandon the technology which underlies the modern world. Why must we tolerate such ignorance? If Awakening is to mean anything, it means that we must wake up to the false information religion we are being fed in the name of religious orthodoxy and follow where reason leads.
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