Scientific Illiteracy

"...the consequences of scientific illiteracy are far more dangerous in our time, than in any that has come before." (p6-7)

One of the things that bothers me about Sagan's argument, is that he makes it seem as though the individual is at fault for not wanting to immerse themselves in science, as he writes-or rather quotes- "the young are disastrously more ignorant than the generation immediately preceding."(p6) He fails to recognize that half the population that isn't immersed in the science, math, and technology fields, is composed  mainly of women, who are not trained to like the hard sciences. They are from birth excluded from the fundamentals of science, math, etc. that intrigue people into the field. They therefore, as well as those who do not find the sciences compelling, have to find something else to depend on to be their truth (as science is for those that are immersed in it). That is why "a God of the Gaps is assigned responsibility for what we do not understand."(p8) A God is created for those that do not find science compelling enough to celebrate in it.

www.youtube.com/watch : Here is a video of Lise Eliot, author of Pink Brain, Blue Brain describing one factor that plays into one's ability to excel in (and I would argue to be intrigued by) science math, and technology. She discusses how spatial abilities have been found to be very important in an individual's success in math, and etc, and how spatial abilities are learned through certain forms of play that are mostly imposed on little boys.