Sluggo said:
xhonzi said:
...If you believe that mankind is destroying the earth, and are a scientist tasked with proving it with concrete data... but the data proves to be elusive... Wouldn't you believe it to be the right thing to tell a little lie, especially if you believe that that lie will save the future of mankind?
In this case, I would also say No.
For the record, I'm not advocating the lying. Just saying I'm wary of people with agendas claiming to tell me the scientific truth.
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...common sense and a moral issue, not a political issue. ...
From what I can tell, the definition of "common sense" and "moral issue" seems to be at the heart of ancient, modern, and post-modern politics. One man's commonly sensible moral issue, is another man's fool's crusade.
The real emphasis ought to be keeping better stewardship of the earth.
Yes, but at what cost? In some cases you're pitting the death of humans, here on the planet today, against the posibility that certain actions may be ruining the planet 1000 years from now. It's not an easy decision to make, in this case, and so we need to know what the actual effects of those actions are, so they can be weighed against the other known consequences. Attempts to control those decisions through the contol of information and the proliferation of misinformation obfuscate our ability to make the best decisions we can make.