{"id":48807,"date":"2014-10-20T12:00:49","date_gmt":"2014-10-20T11:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=48807"},"modified":"2015-05-05T21:29:37","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T20:29:37","slug":"some-fear-ebola-outbreak-could-make-nation-turn-to-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2014\/10\/some-fear-ebola-outbreak-could-make-nation-turn-to-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Some Fear Ebola Outbreak Could Make Nation Turn to Science"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>There is a deep-seated fear among some Americans that an Ebola outbreak could make the country turn to science.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>In interviews conducted across the nation, leading anti-science activists expressed their concern that the American people, wracked with anxiety over the possible spread of the virus, might desperately look to science to save the day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a very human reaction,\u201d said Harland Dorrinson, a prominent anti-science activist from Springfield, Missouri. \u201cIf you put them under enough stress, perfectly rational people will panic and start believing in science.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, he worries about a \u201cslippery slope\u201d situation, \u201cin which a belief in science leads to a belief in math, which in turn fosters a dangerous dependence on facts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>At the end of the day, though, Dorrinson hopes that such a doomsday scenario will not come to pass. \u201cTime and time again through history, Americans have been exposed to science and refused to accept it,\u201d he said. \u201cI pray that this time will be no different.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>______________________________<\/p>\n<p><em>Andy Borowitz is a <\/em>New York Times<em> best-selling author and a comedian who has written for <\/em>The New Yorker<em> since 1998. In 2001, he created the Borowitz Report, a satirical news column that has millions of readers around the world, for which he won the first-ever <\/em>National Press Club<em> award for humor. The Borowitz Report was acquired by <\/em>The New Yorker<em> in 2012.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"http:\/\/www.newyorker.com\/humor\/borowitz-report\/fear-ebola-outbreak-make-nation-turn-science\" >Go to Original \u2013 newyorker.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a very human reaction. If you put them under enough stress, perfectly rational people will panic and start believing in science.\u201d Additionally, he worries about a \u201cslippery slope\u201d situation, \u201cin which a belief in science leads to a belief in math, which in turn fosters a dangerous dependence on facts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[213],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-for-thought"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48807","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48807"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48807\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}