Recently, MSNBC.com ran an article profiling how the current crop of GOP presidential hopefuls views scientific matters. Ready? Here we go.
When it comes to Global Warming, Rick Perry does not support the notion that humans are making the world warmer. Shocker. He points to the so-called "Climategate" flap over what a few scientists said, but even that was clarified and the parties involved exonerated. Michelle Bachmann calls carbon dioxide a "harmless gas." Sigh. Ron Paul calls Global Warming one big "hoax." Parting from the pack, Mitt Romney believes that humans are contributing to rising global temperatures, but won't enact any environmental measures until the rest of the world does.
On stem-cell research, Rick Perry is opposed to any and all embryonic stem-cell research. So is Bachmann. Again, shocker. But Perry is at least open to the idea of adult stem-cells as he himself was aided by such a treatment. Romney's position on the matter has flip-flopped so much, it's hard to say just where he stands anymore. Right now, it looks as if he is opposed to stem-cell research.
Evolution. Hoo-boy. Basically, Rick Perry and Michelle Bachmann believe that The Flintstones was a documentary. They believe that the Christian view of "intelligent design" should be taught along side evolution. Mitt Romney believes that the universe was created by God and did so through the process of evolution. Romney sounds all right but the other two should spend a day in a museum with paleontologists.
I expected each candidate to be stingy when it comes to funding scientific research. What with recent efforts to cut funding to the Hubble space telescope and no doubt there are plans to scuttle its successor, my prediction was that as president, none of these people would want to part with a single tax dollar for the "fancy book learnin' " that is science. But while this hasn't exactly come up with Perry or Romney, Bachmann did vote to increase funding to the National Science Foundation. Chalk a mark in her column. In the meantime, Republicans in Congress have made past attempts to cut funding to both hurricane research and the USGS. Anybody noticed anything on the East Coast lately?
I honestly don't know what scares these people so much about science. The idea that intelligent design should be taught in a public school is frighteningly close to theocracy for me, especially when so much evidence supports evolution. Plus, the two concepts need not be mutually exclusive. Pope John Paul II once said that evolution "has gone far past the theory stage" or something to that effect. That notion, however, is more suited for a theology class than a public school science curriculum.
More unsettling than that is every candidate's unwillingness to act on Global Warming. It's a conspiracy, the Sun is doing it, God is doing it, whatever, it's a political issue when it should be seen as an emergency. Denying the fact of rising temperatures and the ensuing climate and weather changes is just plain ignorance. Or greed.
Or both.Follow me on Twitter: @Jntweets
Please don’t take this as any indication of my defending these clowns, but are you really going to attack these knuckleheads for being against science and logic…on a blog that spends so much space taking alien visitation seriously? Really?
ReplyDeleteYes. I am.
ReplyDeleteWhile my posts do at times tend towards the sillier claims of alien contact because I think they're fun, I believe that there is solid evidence for UFOs. I have stated on more than a few occasions the rationale for this phenomenon and plan to have an upcoming post dedicated just to that.
And the "visitation" need not be alien. What is known as "the extraterrestrial hypothesis" is just one of a few possibilities and might not even be the most likely one...the real reason could be weirder than we ever expected.
On Facebook, CousinJ provided this retort from Richard Dawkins to Rick Perry: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/attention-governor-perry-evolution-is-a-fact/2011/08/23/gIQAuIFUYJ_blog.html
ReplyDeleteI apologize. I agree that UFOs are real. Flying Objects that are not identified do exist. I made an ass out of you and me when I assumed that you believed that UFOs were something other than just weather balloons, etc.
ReplyDeleteBut, even if you do believe in aliens, Jesus, or even New Jersey, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're afraid of science. That's like saying that if I don't like country music, I must not like music.
Plus, don't forget, these are politicians. Politicians pandering to their audience is an age-old tradition.
Nothing to apologize for. :)
ReplyDeleteAs I'm about to post, I do believe that about 95% of UFO sightings can be explained away, are actually hoaxes, or are the result of someone who missed their dose that day. It's the other 5%, as Michio Kaku says, that should give you the willies.
And you raise a valid point about politicians pandering to their base. I'm certain there are those who pound the Bible without harboring any real conviction in the contents. I sometimes wonder if Anne Coulter really doesn't believe the trash that comes out of her head but know that it makes her good bank.
But there are people like Bachmann and Palin who truly do believe much of what they say...and that should scare any of us.