One update to my earlier comments on Obama’s science address this morning: I just interviewed Francis Collins, the former director of the Human Genome Project, on an unrelated topic and we talked a bit about the speech, which Collins attended. He had jotted down the same quote I noted–about the undermining of scientists by “predetermined ideological agendas”–but also one that I missed, which Collins, an evangelical, found significant:
Science cannot supplant our ethics, our values, our principles, or our faith, but science can inform those things, and help put these values, these moral sentiments, that faith, to work – to feed a child, to heal the sick, to be good stewards of this earth.
Collins rightly thinks that this sentiment hedges against the idea that science operates in a realm free from moral or ethical inquiry. He did say, however, that Obama’s earlier comment got a more enthusiastic reception. “He was speaking to an audience of scientists that appreciated his stridency,” observed Collins.