At the beginning of November, I attended the Canadian Science Policy Conference, where one of the headline guest speakers was the new Governor General: former astronaut and currently Right Honourable Julie Payette. The Canadian science and science policy communities had an expectedly positive response to the appointment of such a scientifically minded person to this emblematic role. Her Excellency’s speech really played to the home-town crowd, too, emphasizing that science is increasingly embraced in policymaking here in Canada, and calling for science to now be increasingly embraced in society at large as well, even to the point that science would become a matter of cocktail conversation. There was a lot of controversy, though, about how Payette described the beliefs of those who have not yet been converted to our brand of discipleship, those beliefs that do not pass scientific muster. In today’s post, I’ll point out what I see as an underlying tension in her position and what a resolution might require.
