175 years ago yesterday, the H.M.S. Beagle, carrying Charles Darwin and all of the specimens he had collected on the Beagle’s voyage around the world, crossed the equator homeward bound for England.
But now some Republican politicians, and their Tea Party supporters, want you to believe that the Voyage of the Beagle never happened, and that the scientific discoveries Darwin made cannot be proved.
For people who believe in science fact rather than science fiction, the possibility of a Tea Party candidate becoming President is a truly scary proposition.
Four Tea Party favorites have publically taken a stand in favor of ignorance over knowledge..
In recent statements, Tea Party favorites Rick Perry, Michelle Bachmann, Sarah Palin and Ron Paul have all med it perfectly clear that they don’t believe in evolution and that they want to be confused by the facts.
According to a report in USA Today, last Thursday, Texas governor Rick Perry answered a question about evolution from a boy in New Hampshire, by saying, "That's a theory that is out there -- and it's got some gaps in it."
Brilliant! The biggest gap in the theory of evolution is how Americans evolved to the point where they will vote for an ignoramus like Rick Perry.
Perry then told the boy that, "In Texas, we teach both creationism and evolution. I figure you're smart enough to figure out which one is right."
That isn’t exactly true. Texas schools don’t teach creationism because in 1987 the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Edwards v. Aguillard that teaching creationism is unconstitutional.
However, Perry doesn’t seem to care.
Last Wednesday, Perry also stated that he doesn’t believe that global warming is caused by human activity and that scientists have been manipulating the data about climate change.
What scientific fact is Perry going to doubt next, gravity?
Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is another Republican presidential candidate whose rejection of scientific evidence should disqualify her for public office.
On June 17th, Bachmann talked to reporters in New Orleans after her speech to the Republican Leadership Conference. According to CNN, during that interview Bachman said that she supports teaching Intelligent Design in schools because she thinks there is “reasonable doubt” about evolution.
Intelligent Design is an unproven theory, as unproven as the creation myths from every culture on the face of the earth.
The Incas believed that the god Con Tiqui Viracocha emerged from Lake Titicaca bringing the first human beings with him. The Mayans, on the other hand, believed that the first humans were created from corn dough.
But Bachmann and Perry would scoff at those theories of creation.
In 21st Century China, the Taoist view of creation is still popular. Tao is the ultimate force behind the creation. Nothingness gave rise to existence, existence gave rise to yin and yang, and yin and yang gave rise to everything.
Since both Bachmann and Perry seem to favor importing everything from China, maybe they should support importing the Chinese view of creation too.
Tea party favorite Sarah Palin doesn’t believe in evolution either. In her 2009 book, Going Rogue, Palin wrote that she not only believes in creationism, but that she does not believe in evolution because she “didn’t believe in the theory that human beings —thinking, loving beings — originated from fish that sprouted legs and crawled out of the sea.”
Ron Paul is as scientifically loopy as Perry, Bachmann and Palin.
On September 11, 2009 Paul responded to a question about evolution by saying, “it is a theory, nobody has concrete proof of any of this… because we don’t know the exact details and we don’t have geologic support for evolutionary forms.”
Right! Maybe Ron Paul needs to take a short trip to Natural History Museum and talk a look at the fossil record.
The four leading Tea Party favorites have publically abandoned scientific knowledge, and this leaves Americans who aren’t thrilled with the policies of the Democratic Party caught between a rock and a hard place.
No wonder so many Americans don’t bother to vote.
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