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The new fundamentalism

Nature Biotechnology volume 23, pages 415–416 (2005)Cite this article

Poles apart

Alternative medicine and organic farming are fashionable. Many claims made for them lack scientific veracity and are largely unchallenged by the media. In contrast, scare stories abound about the health threats of the triple mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) vaccine, genetically modified (GM) crops and pesticide residues in food. Frivolous campaigns against MMR vaccines represent a clear and present danger to public health; they discourage parents from immunizing their children against potentially life-threatening illnesses. But perhaps a more nebulous concern for society as a whole is that scaremongering by activists potentially alienates the public and politicians from biotechnologies as a whole. And it is these technologies on which our future health and wealth depends. If we allow new technology to be summarily dismissed on the basis of unsubstantiated claims, we may equally well succumb to the racists, chauvinists, religious fundamentalists and other peddlers of unreason who endanger the future of a tolerant society.

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  1. Dick Taverne is chair of the charity Sense About Science, founded to promote the evidencebased approach to scientific issues. He is a member of the UK House of Lords and has developed a special interest in science and the environment. He recently published “The March of Unreason—Science, Democracy and the New Fundamentalism.”

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Taverne, D. The new fundamentalism. Nat Biotechnol 23, 415–416 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt0405-415

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