Stephen A. Lawrence wrote: It was that she "experienced" being taken to Venus and apparently found > it completely acceptable that it was "very green". Coming from the wife > of the prime minister of a nation which has spacefaring capabilities, > that seems bizarre. >
Let us hope Mr. Hatoyama does not take her views about scientific issues seriously. Ms. Hatoyama may seem quirky to people with a scientific background. But many people in Japan, the U.S. and elsewhere believe in such "mystical" notions such as out of body travel, the healing power of crystals and so on. It is normal to believe such things, and the education system, by and large, never teaches children how to judge such claims because the teachers themselves do not know how. For example, many biology teachers in Texas are creationists. The logical fallacies I often cite are the foundation of ancient and modern logic and science, but most people have never heard of them, and books both professional and popular are riddled with logical fallacies and factually incorrect statements that were disproved decades ago. As I said, most of the human race is as ignorant as it was back in 1600. (Actually people knew a lot more then than you might think.) Mr. Hatoyama is a professor. He is well grounded in science. As it happens, I have met several Japanese professor's wives who had charming, imaginative, batty mystical notions. In my experience, such beliefs cause little or no harm. Some mystical beliefs do cause harm, such as when they cause parents to withhold medical treatment from sick children. It has been known for decades, as absolute confirmed fact, that Venus > isn't even close to "green"; they even teach it in at least some > elementary schools in the United States. > I expect they teach it in Japan as well, but as I said, education has little impact on people. I have seen many instances in the mass media in Japan and the U.S. in which facts taught in elementary school are either mangled, or restated for the benefit of adult readers (which implies that adults do now know them). I imagine many scientists and educators in Japan cringed at this news, but I doubt they have anything to worry about. - Jed
