The case for Reason

One issue that's getting less attention from the news media than it should be is the stem cell research bill that's just now making its way through Congress, heading straight for a possible veto showdown with President Bush.

Regardless of what many of the bill's proponents believe, this bill will not make-or-break the field of regenerative medicine. And even if the U.S. drops out of the stem cell field, Singapore and our other Asian rivals will keep the labs humming. But the real reason that this bill is important has little to do with the speed of discovery or U.S. technological supremacy.

Let me explain.

Anyone watching the news this week might wonder, "Why is Israel, this tiny country, able to inflict such massive damage on Arab populations 100 times as large?" And you might ask, "Why do American soldiers smash Arab armies like toys whenever we meet them?"

Well, it probably has something to do with our (and Israel's) capitalist system, which allows the free flow of goods and information and lets our country get rich. Or maybe God really is on our side (for a thoughtful debate on that subject, click here). But my bet is that it's because Western culture has spent a lot more time relying on science, technology, and reason than our Arab counterparts.

The impact of science and reason on a civilization's progress is incalculable. Scientific advancement allows economies to prosper, living standards to rise, and nations to defend themselves. It was technology - radar, long-range bombers, efficient production systems, cryptgraphy, and the nuclear bomb - that propelled us to victory in World War 2, not the courage of our fighters or the cunning of our generals (though we had those too). It is scientific advancements that allow us to own large comfortable homes, commute wherever we want, and not live in fear of dread diseases. It is the lack of technological progress that keeps much of the Third World sweltering in the heat, trapped in their home towns, and dying of plagues.

But the effect of reason and rationality on human happiness is not limited to high-tech wizardry. Accepting that germs cause disease will lead people to wash their hands, and to avoid unprotected sex with strangers. In Africa, many people ignore these lessons. They choose alternate, non-rational beliefs, such as "HIV does not cause AIDS," and they suffer for it en masse.

Years of foreign travel taught me that what I used to think of as universal ways of analyzing reality were actually somewhat peculiar to my home country. In Japan (one of Earth's most high-tech societies), a math whiz and financier informed me that "Japanese people didn't get SARS because only Chinese people can get SARS." If you think this kind of superstitious nonsense can't land a country in deep trouble, look at Japan's skyrocketing AIDS rate.

America is different. America was a nation founded on principles of rationality and reason. Our Founders believed that the human mind, applied to the problems of this world, could improve our condition on this planet through experimentation and analysis. So far, that legacy of Reason has served us well.

But if we choose to put aside the principles of rationality, science, and objective analysis of evidence, we risk falling behind. Even in our culture, where "new and improved" is slapped on almost every box in the supermarket, there are anti-reason forces vigorously at work. The push to teach "Intelligent Design" (a belief system not based on rationality) over the reason-based theory of evolution is one example. Cynical attempts by the oil industry to discredit the universally accepted theory of global warming are another.

In both of these cases, opponents of the science are pushing an alternate approach - desire-based belief. Each case is an instance of people believing what they want - that humans are not related to apes, or that burning oil doesn't change the climate - instead of what they see. Believing what you want is perfectly fine, until reality decides to intrude. Believing that a wall isn't there, because you don't want a wall to be there, won't hurt you at all...until you hit the wall.

Banning federal funding for embryonic stem cell research won't run us into a wall...not yet. The danger is that America will start inching away from its scientific and rationalist heritage, toward the kind of society that tries to disbelieve walls away through acts of will. And someday we'll wake up and discover that, while we were doing rain dances and throwing salt over our shoulders, countries like China passed us by.

Or to put it more bluntly:

Wall > Will.

The Bush administration, more than any of us, needs to learn the lesson that reality doesn't go away just because you will it to. In the meantime, let's hope the stem cell bill becomes law, not because I find myself in need of stem cells, but because I'm not very good at doing rain dances.