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During the 2008 race, for example, three GOP candidates (Iowa caucus winner Mike Huckabee and also-rans Sam Brownback and Tom Tancredo) raised their hands during a debate when the moderator asked if any of them did not believe in evolution. How many raised hands would there be this year, if the same question is asked of the GOP field? Let’s take a look at where everyone stands.
8 comments
1 |
OhCrapIHaveACrushOnSarahPalin Sun, Aug 21, 2011 7:06:33pm |
This is the base level to which the conservative movement has sunk.
/disgusted
| 2 |
jaunte Sun, Aug 21, 2011 7:19:02pm |
Ron Paul: In a Q&A with Reddit users in 2009, Paul, asked about evolution said, “You know it is a theory, nobody has concrete proof of any of this. But quite frankly I think it’s sort of irrelevant, that because we don’t know the exact details and we don’t have geologic support for evolutionary forms, it is a theory, even though it’s a pretty logical theory.”
Evolution, as Stephen J. Gould has written, is both fact and theory.
I think Ron Paul is both ignorant, and pandering.
Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world’s data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts do not go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein’s theory of gravitation replaced Newton’s, but apples did not suspend themselves in mid-air, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from apelike ancestors whether they did so by Darwin’s proposed mechanism or by some other, yet to be discovered.
Moreover, “fact” does not mean “absolute certainty.” The final proofs of logic and mathematics flow deductively from stated premises and achieve certainty only because they are not about the empirical world. Evolutionists make no claim for perpetual truth, though creationists often do (and then attack us for a style of argument that they themselves favor). In science, “fact” can only mean “confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.” I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms. [Link: www.stephenjaygould.org…]
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| 3 |
freetoken Sun, Aug 21, 2011 8:21:33pm |
The article relies upon what the candidates have said in the past - reasonable on the surface but one has to dig to find the truth.
Newt Gingrich, for example, has shown that he’ll say pretty much whatever is needed for the audience to whom he is speaking at the time.
And, Herman Cain is one of the most fundamentalist of religionists on that stage, and his position, though probably more nuanced than the average pew sitter (since he was also a preacher), is not in doubt.
| 4 |
elizajane Sun, Aug 21, 2011 8:57:09pm |
If I am not mistaken, 40% of Americans when polled say that God created man in pretty much the form we’re in now. I’m sure that the percentage is far higher among voting Republicans. So not believing in evolution is far from a disqualifier in the primaries; how it sits in a general election is a different story. Huntsman was right when he said that if the Republican party becomes the anti-science party, they’re really in trouble.
At least, I hope he’s right! If he’s wrong, the country is in trouble.
| 6 |
Lord Baron Viscount Duke Earl Count Planckton Mon, Aug 22, 2011 3:53:55am |
re: #5 000G
Thanks for the link. I’ve seen such critiques of Gould before, e.g. from Arthur Jensen (who himself is not much of a gift, mind you).
This case is an example of why I don’t rush to condemn some of people whom G crticized as some sort of Nazi-racist bogeymen, although some of their political views do leave this suspicion of right-wing bias. We should not forget, however, that just as easily there can be a left-wing bias in this area too.
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