Neil DeGrasse Tyson believes that eventually Republicans will embrace teaching actual science in the classroom once they realize that it is in the country's economic interest to do so.

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Courtesy of Raw Story:  

Astrophysicist and celebrity science advocate Neil deGrasse Tyson recently, and at great length, discussed the importance of scientific literacy with Bill Moyers. 

Moyers began by reminding viewers of a recent Gallup poll in which 46 percent of Americans espoused the belief that “God created human beings pretty much in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years.” Moreover, a Pew Research poll showed that two-thirds of evangelical Protestants, “the bedrock of the Republican Party, reject altogether the idea that humans have evolved.” 

Belief in the theory of evolution rose among Democrats to 67 percent. 

Neil deGrasse Tyson attempted to explain this partisan divide in scientific literacy by discussing the role of the democratic process in science education. Because what’s taught in classrooms is handled at the state level, many Americans are “born into” ignorance. 

He says this is a “self-correcting” phenomenon, because “nobody wants to die. We all care about health. Republicans, especially, don’t want to die poor. So educated Republicans know the value of innovations in science and technology for the thriving of an economy and business industry.” 

So, he believes, eventually even they won’t want to see something “that is not science in a science classroom,” because that “undermines the entire enterprise that was responsible for creating the wealth that we have come to take for granted in this country.” 

There is only so long, he says, that Republicans will allow the United States to “fad[e] economically.” 

“[S]ome Republican is going to wake up and say, ‘Look guys, we got to split these two, we have to, otherwise we’ll doom ourselves to poverty.” 

It’s “just a matter,” he says, “of electing into office people who know…how money gets generated.”

I am a huge fan of Professor Tyson's but I have to wonder if he is not being a little naive here. 

After all as long as the Religious Right are more concerned about the eternity that awaits them after this life, and about preparing themselves for the second coming of Jesus, they will not care one bit about how America fares in comparison to other countries economically.

Remember many of them believe that any minute now they will be scooped up and taken to Heaven leaving only the sinners and Atheists down here to worry about what remains of the world.

Kind of hard to teach science, and talk about the country's future, with those people around.

So until we start electing rational, non-religious types to run our country, and teach in our schools, I don't know how we prevent these attacks on science.