We certainly need more of them in this current society.
But are you sure you are fighting for the right cause and with
the right tools/knowledge?
Who will saying science is a religion to make things better for?
You seem to really have it in for those SETI guys. Funny, but
not too long ago they were considered the wide-eyed dreaming
rebels of science, now they are being labeled mainstream ivory
tower dwellers by you at least. That's progress for you, I guess.
But I wish you would tell me what your solutions are to the
cause of searching for intelligent life beyond Earth. Because
if you don't have a working starship, how else do you propose
we look for them?
Or are you saying because we have no real proof of their
existence that we should not look for them at all? Then how
do you propose we will ever find them? They might show up
on our planet, just as I suppose if I sit in a boat in a lake long
enough a fish will jump into my boat - but I will have a much
better chance of getting one if I drop a line and hook with some
bait into the water. Granted, I have no proof that there will be
fish in that lake assuming I haven't already seen any, but my
chances have improved quite a bit by being proactive, and
the worst that will happen is I go home empty-handed and
assume there are either no fish in the lake, too few and far
between, or that the fish are either too smart or too scared
to take a bite.
Science and technology are not perfect, but without them we
would be in much worse shape, or at least a lot less knowledgable.
If you have a better solution while knocking down those towers
of academia, please tell us.