New Time religion

My buddy RE sent me links to three speeches by Michael Crichton. It seems that Crichton has had good scientific training and thought about what science actually is, and, as a result, has very uncomplimentary things to say about what some branches of it are up to now.

For example, Crichton argues that science has proven that DDT is not harmful, religion has caused it to remain banned even though this results in the death of millions from malaria. Similarly, the jury is out on global warming through greenhouse gases, but people want to destroy 5% of GDP fighting the "problem" by delaying emissions by 6 years. Rationality cannot explain this behavior, on totemic, unshakable belief, so Crichton rightly calls it religion.

Three links:
Environmentalism & junk science

Global warming

The inanity of the media

I think he's being a little unfair to the media though -- there has been no decline, they've always been inane. Orson Scott Card has a good essay on the consequences of this current flavor of media inanity.