Recently I’ve been swept up in the latest faux climate science scandal, namely the complaints of a slighted archivist John Bates, which were transmuted by a contrarian blog “ClimateEtc” and a sensationalists tabloid fiction writer, then given the imprimatur of the House Science committee thanks to Rep Lamar Smith and his maliciously slanderous February 5th press release - that I spend quite a few hours reading and researching and processing. Then I wrote up a report dissecting US Representative Lamar Smith’s words line by line.
BatesMotel#4 - US Rep Lamar Smith - Feb 5th Press Release, his NOAA smear campaign dissected. http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2017/02/4usrep-smith-karl15-noaa-dissection.htmlSince finishing it I'm still mulling over my lessons learned and I can summarize them as follows. . .BatesMotel#4B - US Rep Lamar Smith - Feb 5th Press Release, his NOAA smear campaign dissected - APPENDIX http://whatsupwiththatwatts.blogspot.com/2017/02/4busrep-smith-app-karl15-noaa.html
Fundamental to my perspective is the appreciation that there is a profound difference between Personal Truths and Universal Truths. Personal Truths govern matters of the human heart and soul. Keep in mind that unless you believe in the notion that Earth was created in six days, six thousand years ago, you must realize that humanity’s presence on this Earth is but a minuscule flash in the history of our miraculous planet, which will continue long after we have extinguished ourselves. Holy Books are shadow plays. They are tribal stories professing personal truths that concern the human condition and our own personal journeys as we proceed through our numbered years while grappling with our inescapable ultimate fate. Holy books with their colorful imaginations and big expectations are measured in centuries. How can they possibly represent the God of Light and Time, Creation and Love, an entity who’s awareness spans thousands of millions of years and hundreds of thousands of generations of life on this planet? Human religions speak to the Human Condition. They are real, they are valid, but they are also narcissistic and blind to the greater reality of the natural world that surrounds* us. In fact, the world that created us. (*Guess, not so much anymore, given the population explosion and mega-megalopolis where people are herded together into pens, far removed from the natural world that sustains all of us. That is the biosphere that we are devouring at an unfathomable rate.) That is the realm of Personal Truths. ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Universal Truths have to do with physical reality. God’s stage so to speak. Universal Truths govern the geophysics and biology that made Earth the boundless cornucopia that humanity was born into not all that many generations ago. Science is the self-critical system for intelligent humans with a thirst for understanding the world around them. Established in order to keep themselves objective and honest. They have achieved incredible insights because Earth is no trickster, unlike so many of the gods humans obsess over. The scientific community is composed of intelligent, all around skeptical, (that would include self-skepticism), critical-thinking, informed, competitive individuals spanning the globe and generations.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_WLArrksB4 ________________________________________________
Lamar Smith and the GOP's contrarian process: fabricate scandals intent on demonizing opponents with a, nonstop injection of hostility, personal assumption morphed into self-certain facts, refusing to listen to correcting objective facts, conjuring paranoid fantasies without evidence, dependence on fancy-dancing-words and Orwellian Doublespeak, wants us to believe all these scientists are in on deception, while ignoring all he finds inconvenient.______________________________________ It’s telling the forces that have propped up Rep Lamar Smith have needed to also create a faux climate science community, self satisfied and hermetically sealed against all opposing critique and evidence. Deny, deny, deny. Ignore, ignore, ignore. To repeat part of my previous post: ________________________________________
There are Personal Truths and there are Universal Truths. Science is the path to understanding physical universal truths. Science is predicated on the understanding: We Need Each Other To Keep Ourselves Honest. Unidirectional skepticism adds up to blind denial. Self-certainty strips the ability to learn from new relevant information.Next up, the attack piece that started the entire disgrace.