Donald Trump has some really thin ice he is treading on in America, and his apathy toward funding science is a major issue people need to address. He refuses to fund research, refuses to give money to NASA, and refuses to keep what Obama had planned for the future with science research. This is a major issue that is inexcusable in the modern world.
Trump needs to recognize the gravity of what he is doing by putting these research opportunities on hold. This means that scientific progress will go down internationally, and the United States could now easily be on it's decline of being an authority on science. He is so short-sighted and caught up on rash promises he made during his campaign that he would dismantle the most important thing you can do to advance technology. Hating to plan for the long-term just because you won't get elected next cycle hurts America in ways that Trump can not wrap his mind around. By understanding the processes that happen in the world, not only can humans have a deeper and more fundamental understanding of the universe, but we can use those processes to our benefit, and put them into new technologies to help us further growth. Things like solar energy could take off at a huge rate if more funding an attention was put to it, and we could have a much cleaner Earth, and not have to worry about Climate Change. But, unfortunately, Trump has decided to disregard rising temperature and mounds of empirical evidence and instead opt to bolster coal usage (the most harmful of the fossil fuels, by the way) because of protectionist economic policy. This sort of thing is not new to the political scene, though. Most presidents in the past use this short term approach to politics, and end up destroying the potential America has as a nation. If Democrats and Republicans could unite on some of these issues, they would not have to keep bickering over the small details, and instead focus on America's future. Just because the Rust Belt is failing because less people want to harm the Earth with fossil fuels doesn't make it okay to make America keep using them. Scientists around the globe are afraid of what Trump may do to the international community, and they have a right to be scared. So, Trump, if you truly want to "Make America Great Again", do it by helping to advance scientific research and technology, and let the fantastic minds in America solve questions we've always wondered. Let those minds use the answers to those questions bolster advances in technology, and make a better life for all people, not just the 49% of America that voted for you.
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The secular and religious states may not have much debate today, but before the American Revolution, it was a heated debate between citizens and politicians. People who want the state to support a religion often want the head of the state (typically a monarch or dictator) to hold the values of a religion, and support it through policy. Advocates of a secular state do not want religion in any government, and support tolerance of all religions.
Most of the countries today push secularism because of Enlightenment ideals spread in the 18 and 19th centuries. Countries in the modern world make sure that people have the freedom to practice whatever religion they please, as long as it is not harming other individuals. This may not sound radical to the average person in the 21st century, but basically all of Europe and Asia was founded on Theocracies. In Europe it was mainly Catholicism or Orthodox Christianity, while in Asia it could be Confucianism, Hinduism, or Buddhism. The switch from these theocracies into religiously free places was a dramatic shift in governmental policy. There are a few countries that still are not secular, most of them in the Middle East. Iran is one of the biggest ones to have religion in government, as the Islamic Shah controls the country. The Shah is a religious and governmental ruler, and has laws that are directly influenced by the Qur'an and Islamic faith. The other big non-secular state is Saudi Arabia, which has Sharia Law in it's laws, making it so that women have to be covered when they go out in public, and heresy against Islamic faith is prohibited. Theocracy is not limited to Islam, though that is the best example in today's world. To some extent, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) could be considered a theocracy, as it's laws protect the Cult of Personality around Kim Jong Un. Historical examples can be found everywhere, even in Mesopotamia in the first civilizations. Theocracy typically has a negative connotation in America, but the stability and unifying factors of a religious state can not be discounted. There are always benefits and detriments to every type of government, and to remove bias and look at things objectively, you can start to critique the time period you live in, and the government you live under. |
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