I recently read a blog posting on CR4 that posed the question: “Science and technology change culture.  Are voters educated well enough in science and technology to assess who should be the US president come 2009?”

The replies to post immediately posed questions about God and religion.  I originally took this reply to be a joke.  But then every reply treated the original reply as serious and discussion worthy.  Besides being off topic, the reply annoys the hell out of me.

If you believe God gave you free will then you have a responsibility to educate yourself with respect to key issues.  If God did not give you free will then there is no harm in being educated on the key issues if only to help you understand God’s plan.  If you don’t believe in God then obviously you are responsible for your own actions and must be educated.

Technology is key to US national security.  Technology is key the US economy.  Bleading edge science in nanotech, genetcis, and computers are vital to growth of the US economy in coming decades.  Irresponsible use of nanotech could pose pollution style threats to our health.  How can we afford to be ignorant?