Respect his authority! : Pharyngula

The Minnesota Senate's loudest voice against climate change, it's chief denialist, is a Republican (of course) named Michael Jungbauer.

via scienceblogs.com

Hilarious post from the always interesting PZ Meyers. Prominent and/or outspoken climate change denialists often claim science while denouncing it, and Jungbauer is no exception. Scrolling down to the comments Moggie asks why "must Christians create parallel, Christian versions of everything?" Why indeed. Putting on my anthropologist's hat for a moment, I suggest the we need to be able to answer Moggie's question before we can adequately deal with denialists. Denialism isn't just about rejecting science or being ignorant of scientific principles (it is about these things, for some, but only partly), it is an aspect of a worldview that has its own internal coherences. This worldview expresses the beliefs of a community that both claims the authority of science, and at the same time attempts to compete with it. So if you are a science denier--climate change denier, evolution denier, etc-- it makes sense to construct alternative media and institutions directly or indirectly challenging "official science." This can take the form of websites and blogs, universities, and museums. Taking the anthro hat off I can say that people like Jungbauer both amuse and alarm me, but putting it back on again I want to point out that people like Jungbauer--at least the ones who aren't bought and paid for--really think that they are right. Is this a symptom of ignorance, or is something else motivating their convictions?