I don't know if you've ever had occassion to sit at the dinner table with religious fundementalists and discuss science.
I have. (I have, in fact, sat in the laboratory, and discussed science with religious fundementalists, but let's not talk about that.)
One of the more fun conversations like this - dinner table, not laboratory - involved a family member, who I happen to know has never opened a science book seriously in her life - informing all of the members of our family that "everything in the Bible has been verified by science."
This is not by itself even remotely interesting except to inform us on one level about the prestige of science, since in former times science was only considered valid if it conformed to religion whereas, subtly without all that much notice, religions now seek validity from science and not the other way around.
Science has become a cultural talisman worldwide. As it happens, the paper from the primary scientific literature comes from the journal Science...
continued at Daily Kos....
