Friday, May 04, 2007

An Anti-Evolution President?

A shout out to Rob Allen over on the Tony Isabella board for bringing this to my attention...

From news reports about this week's Republican candidates' debate:

"The field split on another issue, with Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo raising their hands when asked who did not believe in evolution."

Political blogger, Adam Felber, had this comment:

"Should this disqualify those guys for the Presidency? Nah - nobody should be disqualified for their faith. Not unless they’re members of some church that worships bacon bits or hamsters or Ryan Seacrest or something like that - we have to be rational, after all, and limit our tolerance to faiths based on magic superheroes who can’t ever be killed, really, and the cryptic ancient texts that describe their adventures. Once we start opening the door to belief systems that don’t involve science or gigantic supernatural unknowable beings (be they men or lobsters), things could get messy.

But at the very least we should take the raised hands of Brownback, Huckabee, and Tancredo as persuasive evidence of dumbassery. Plenty of responsible, intelligent Christian men and women have figured out how to have a worldview that includes both their faith and the overwhelming evidence for evolution. I’m sure there are even some Seacrestians or Hamsterites out there who’ve managed to pull off this trick.

Do I have something interesting or funny to say about this? Apparently not. But it’s worth reminding ourselves - we’re living in a country where an atheist can’t even get near the podium in a Presidential debate, while these three unwise men can blithely hop onto the national stage and tell children that science just doesn’t work.

… and then they’ll start talking about education, and their plan to help America’s children get back the smarts and that old-fashioned quality book-learnin’ that somehow - mysteriously, almost supernaturally- seems to have disappeared.

God help us."

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