Ken Miller: America This article captures the reasons why I bother to argue or care about matters of faith.
40% of the country? Holy shit. I guess talking snakes are more believable than scientific theory. Unreal.
The United States still holds most all of the patents in the world and is the leading importer of intelligence, particularly science. The last part lends some credence to your point, but also is a conundrum. How can a country that is slipping on both mathematical and scientific reasoning still be a powerhouse for university research, even if it is conducted by the Chinese and Indians? There is a simplistic answer of course -- the US had great universities before they did -- but I think it is something more. I believe the American orientation toward the humanities and "soft" sciences if you will has enabled a creativity bug we haven't seen in other parts of the world. The Chinese are excellent at being able to replicate exactly what you tell them, but I'm not sure the creative process in China is as special as it is here. So while I agree that your post presents some problems for American science, I think there is something folks have missed about science and its development in this country. I guess what I am trying to say is: I think the sciences in this country are still best positioned for the future because of this uneasy, but delicate balance between good scientific research and out of the box thinking. Of course, this is coming from someone not in the sciences, so I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Not too worried about it. Science is still pretty highly valued and as long as we value individual achievement (a much bigger concern, in my opinion) we'll have great minds advancing science.