Anti-Science Liberals

Steven Hayward at Powerline makes a very interesting point:

Conservatives are said to be “anti-science,” though one ought to pause once and a while and ponder where the opposition to vaccines and genetically modified organisms comes from. A belief in a literal six-day creation 6,000 years ago harms no one; urging parents not to vaccinate their children, as prominent liberals and celebrities have done, leads to unnecessary death and disease.

I'd go much further than this.   I have never actually met a practicing conservative Christian who believes in "a literal six-day creation 6,000 years ago."  Perhaps they exist, but I've never met one.   To me it's not just a stereotype... it's a fantasy straw man of the left.   But during my adult lifetime the American left has opposed an extraordinary range of scientific or engineering advances, essentially on emotional or romantic grounds:

• Nuclear power
• Fracking
• Pesticides
• Genetically engineered fruits and vegetables
• Genetically engineered cattle
• Vaccines

Liberals are the Luddites of the 21st Century.