Tag Archives: evolution

Evidence? We Don’t Need No Stinking Evidence.

From “Grand Old Planet,” Paul Krugman, NYT:

“What was [Sen. Marco] Rubio’s complaint about science teaching? That it might undermine children’s faith in what their parents told them to believe. And right there you have the modern G.O.P.’s attitude, not just toward biology, but toward everything: If evidence seems to contradict faith, suppress the evidence.

“The most obvious example other than evolution is man-made climate change. As the evidence for a warming planet becomes ever stronger — and ever scarier — the G.O.P. has buried deeper into denial, into assertions that the whole thing is a hoax concocted by a vast conspiracy of scientists. And this denial has been accompanied by frantic efforts to silence and punish anyone reporting the inconvenient facts.

“But the same phenomenon is visible in many other fields. The most recent demonstration came in the matter of election polls. Coming into the recent election, state-level polling clearly pointed to an Obama victory — yet more or less the whole Republican Party refused to acknowledge this reality. Instead, pundits and politicians alike fiercely denied the numbers and personally attacked anyone pointing out the obvious; the demonizing of The Times’s Nate Silver, in particular, was remarkable to behold.

“What accounts for this pattern of denial? Earlier this year, the science writer Chris Mooney published ‘The Republican Brain,’ which was not, as you might think, a partisan screed. It was, instead, a survey of the now-extensive research linking political views to personality types. As Mr. Mooney showed, modern American conservatism is highly correlated with authoritarian inclinations — and authoritarians are strongly inclined to reject any evidence contradicting their prior beliefs. Today’s Republicans cocoon themselves in an alternate reality defined by Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, and only on rare occasions — like on election night — encounter any hint that what they believe might not be true.

“And, no, it’s not symmetric. Liberals, being human, often give in to wishful thinking — but not in the same systematic, all-encompassing way.”  Emphasis added.

After the election, Charles Krauthammer said the GOP’s problem was a lack of “delicacy” in their communications.  But it’s really an abundance of delusion in their thinking.

 

It’s About the Big Bang, Not Big Bird

The GOP tells us that this is a watershed election.  I agree, but not for the reasons they say.  This isn’t about whether or not we’re going to switch to vouchers for Medicare or what the Medicaid budget is going to be.  This is about whether we’re going to continue down the Republican path to the Dark Ages.

To their shame, the GOP has let extremists take over their party at the state and national level.   The question on November 6 is whether we’re going to let the crazies take over our country.

I grew up believing that some things were settled in our society — that evolution was established science, that Keynesianism was established economics.  But now the GOP presents laughable, long-discredited science and economics as the truth.

With 435 congressional districts, we’re going to get people like Todd “Legitimate Rape” Akin.  But fringe people like him should not be elevated to the Senate.  And they definitely shouldn’t become Vice President, but Paul Ryan and Todd Akin are Tweedledee and Tweedledum on social issues.  Ryan is a little more careful about what he says in public, but their views and votes are the same.

We are outraged about the Taliban shooting of 14-year-old Malala Yousafzai in Pakistan because she defended the right of girls to go to school.  We rightly think the Taliban are sick barbarians.  But if Ryan and Akin had their way, we’d have 14-year-old rape and incest victims dying from illegal abortions.  That is every bit as sick and barbaric.

I voted for Bush 43 in 2004 and McCain in 2008 because I was afraid of the radical Muslims.   I’m still a registered Republican, but I’m voting for Obama because I’m afraid of the radical Christians.  I want to defeat the Christian Taliban here at home.

 

How Do the Creationists Explain This?

From “Now You Know Why Your Boss Is Such an Ape,” Matt Ridley, WSJ:

“Generally, junior professors write long and unsolicited emails to senior professors, who reply with short ones after a delay; the juniors then reply quickly and at length.  This is not because the seniors are busier, for they, too, write longer and more punctually when addressing their deans and funders, who reply more briefly and tardily.  The asymmetry in length and speed of reply correlates with dominance.

“When a subordinate chimpanzee grooms a dominant one, it often does so for a long time and unsolicited.  When it then requests to be groomed in turn, it receives only a brief grooming and usually after having to ask a second time.

“This gorgeous little juxtaposition of tales comes from a new book by Dario Maestripieri of the University of Chicago, who is both a professor and a primatologist (and a primate).  His book, called ‘Games Primates Play,’ is devoted to ramming home a lesson that we all seem very reluctant to learn;  that much of our behavior, however steeped in technology is entirely predictable to primatologists.”

Jon “Van Winkle” Huntsman and Rick Perry

Asked about Rick Perry’s views on evolution and climate change, Jon Huntsman told ABC’s Jake Tapper, “I think there’s a serious problem.”  But Huntsman went on to show his own serious problem when he said, “The minute that the Republican Party becomes the anti-science party, we have a huge problem.”  Um, Jon, that minute happened a long time ago.  Our party already proudly is, and has been for awhile now, the anti-science party.  Rick Perry represents the normal, accepted, conventional wing of the party, you are the disbelieved, loony, and scorned fringe.

The question isn’t when or if the Republican Party will become the anti-science party, it’s when or if it will ever return to being a science party.  Probably not in Huntsman’s political lifetime.