Today Pharyngula had a post that mentions "creeping Lysenskoism" in the U.S. Lysensko, for those who don't know, was a Soviet pseudoscientist who managed to cause famines by injecting Soviet agriculture with nonsense that happened to appeal to the ruling communists.
His power didn't last, though. His ideas were kicked out in the 60's, and now he's an embarrassment to Russia and reality-based biology has full sway over the country.
Think about that last part. Reality-based biology is finally in.
Maybe what the U.S. needs is our own version of Trofim Lysensko. Maybe what we need is someone who will come in, announce that selective breeding is no longer to be used in agriculture, and that now we will do agriculture by praying to Designer to make the Designs of our plants more Intelligent.
Sure lots of people would die in the resulting famines and U.S. science would be sent back by generations. Honestly, though, the way things are looking, that may be what it will take to get religiously-inspired pseudoscience out of the country.
Hope I'm wrong.
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