Neil deGrasse Tyson: We ‘Doom Ourselves to Poverty’ If We Let Politics Trump Science

Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, like Bill Nye, is very passionate about scientific literacy, and so when Bill Moyers brought up mainstream rejection of evolution, Tyson bemoaned how allowing politics to “trump science,” as Moyers put it, not only affects the American educational system, but it can also have adverse impacts on the economic future of the country.

Tyson said, thankfully, this is a “self-correcting phenomenon” because “above all else, among the Republicans I know, especially Republicans, nobody wants to die poor.” He argued that regardless of politics, educated people understand that scientific literacy is important to a thriving economy.

“If you put something that is not science in a science classroom, pass it off as science, then you are undermining an entire enterprise that was responsible for creating the wealth that we have come to take for granted in this country… if that trend continues, some Republican is going to wake up and say, ‘Look guys, we got to split these two. We have to. Otherwise, we will doom ourselves to poverty.'”

He bemoaned how people are voting “people who don’t understand how to make” money into office, and if that trend continued, “we’ll still call ourselves America, but we won’t lead the world economically.”

Watch the video below, via Moyers & Company:

[h/t Raw Story]

[photo via screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac

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