Lots of people, including us folk at Uncommon Descent are accused of “undermining science.”
Dennis Prager, reflecting on last weekend’s “Prepare to Meet Thy Doom“-fest observes that secular apocalypses (that never really happen) have done our work for us:
There is one major difference between leftist and religious doomsday scenarios. The religious readily acknowledge that their doomsday scenario is built entirely on faith. The left, on the other hand, claims that its doomsday scenarios are entirely built on science.
That there is little truth to the left-wing claim is not as important as the fact that these doomsday scenarios have undermined the status of science. How many scientists have been compromised by their joining the research-money and fame bandwagons of left-wing apocalyptic predictions? And how has this affected the public’s perceptions of science and scientists when it comes to contentious issues?
– “When It Comes to Doomsdays, the Left Shouldn’t Laugh at the Religious,” Townhall (May 24, 2011)
A great many people respond by discounting, as an argument for a given proposition, that x hundred scientists believe it.
Question of the week: How many times has the world ended since 1975 (36 years ago)? The US median age is about 37 years …
(Note: Here’s a reality-based account of how Christians actually reacted to the failed prophecy.)