Science and US Presidential Candidates -- Donald Kennedy States his View. (January 4, 2008)

The editor in chief of the journal Science in his first editorial for 2008 has some cogent comments on the forthcoming US presidential election as regards science and religion.

Below is an excerpt, and Dr Kennedy's comments are not without interest in regard to religious views publicly stated by Australia's newly elected Prime Minister during the run up to our federal election.

Given this new focus on religious disclosure [by the presidential candidates], what does this U.S. election have to do with science? Everything. The candidates should be asked hard questions about science policy, including questions about how those positions reflect belief. What is your view about stem cell research, and does it relate to a view of the time at which human life begins? Have you examined the scientific evidence regarding the age of Earth? Can the process of organic evolution lead to the production of new species, and how? Are you able to look at data on past climates in search of inferences about the future of climate change?

Especially because we are in a new era of faith advertisement, we should demand that candidates provide thoughtful answers to such scientific questions. That religion has entered the political space should not produce a conflict between science and religion.

...[D]etermined efforts have been made to introduce scriptural versions of the age of Earth or of "intelligent design" in science classrooms. We need to know the candidates' qualifications for understanding and judging science, and for speaking intelligently about science and technology to the leaders of other nations in planning our collective global future. I don't need them to describe their faith; that's their business and not mine. But I do care about their scientific knowledge and how it will inform their leadership.