Republicans: Please Raise Your Hand If You Do Not Believe In Evolution

[Apocalypse]

I went to three different Catholic schools and they all taught evolution.

[b etor]

they teach it at my school too. it infuriates my father and older sister.

[Apocalypse]

It makes me annoyed at Rick Santorum, who is supposedly Catholic, but rails against evolution. He should be excommunicated.

[Koyaanisqatsi]

Pretty decent post on Ars about this:

But there was a third point of view, although the author of the article didn't recognize it, and relegated it to the final paragraph. It was represented by John Derbyshire who, it was suggested, "would not say whether he thought evolutionary theory was good or bad for conservatism; the only thing that mattered was whether it was true." In other words, the scientific evidence and rational analysis that lead to scientific conclusions exist independent of our interpretations of them or how we apply those to social and policy decisions.

This seems not only to be the pro-science perspective, but the pro-rational thought perspective. And that's what I think motivated the question regarding evolution in the presidential debates: it was an attempt to ascertain whether a given candidate was willing to ditch a scientific and rational thought process if it led to conclusions he was personally uncomfortable with (or, more cynically, he believed that the primary voters would be uncomfortable with).

[Barnabas]

They taught evolution in my catholic school too, the biology teacher who taught that also taught how to have pregnancy safe sex, by checking out the temperature of the vagina and only having sex certain days, so it was not a "light" catholic church

[Kuciwalker]

[Barnabas]

Originally posted by Sn00py
Yeah b etor. They upgrade their belief when the evidence can no longer be disputed and when they look stupid.

If I recall correctly the church never said anything against the theory,
they remained silent untill they accepted it, they had the prudence of never going agaisnt it due to having experience (like the galileo issue that made them look bad)

"The position of the Roman Catholic Church on the theory of evolution has changed over the last two centuries from a large period of no official mention, to a statement of neutrality in the 1950s, to a more explicit acceptance in recent years"

[mrmitchell]

Originally posted by Apocalypse
It's kinda a shame...I thought Huckabee had the best chance of winning since he really is a very likable guy.

He is very likable but he has chronic "foot-in-mouth" disease, from "Arkansas is a banana republic" to "We could have afforded to lose World War II" to "I lost weight because of staying at a concentration camp held by the Democratic Party." He's lucky as hell he is too minor a political actor for any of these remarks to have real repercussions or widespread airplay.

Unfortunately for me, his likability comes from being one of those "general direction" type guys who rarely pushes specific policy. This lets him pretty much cherry-pick his political image since he can dissociate from whackjob bills in general directions that he supports (ex: bills in the Ark. legislature that have demanded legislative oversight and free hand to edit school textbooks regarding evolution) while still saying "hey I supported that issue."

Some people like this kind of executive but I think given Presidential power he would sit on things for too long and mismanage what he did address. Nothing personal against the guy - I just wouldn't want him managing my country.

[snoopy369]

I absolutely do not believe in evolution.

I think it is the most likely scenario that has been hypothesized to date to explain how the species Homo Sapiens Sapiens came into being [and other modern species]. There are other reasonable theories out there, including intelligent design, but I am of the opinion that the general theory of evolution is a more likely theory, particularly as it is simpler (Occam's razor etc.) when explaining fossil records etc.

I however most certainly do not 'believe' in it, nor do I 'have faith' in it. Faith and belief are things you have in something you do not understand, but simply believe.

Sadly, as CS mentions earlier, far too many Americans "believe" in evolution, to the point that they're no better than the Sam Brownbacks who believe in creationism. No true scientist would tell you that Intelligent Design is "false" or "impossible" because, well, it's not; it is certainly not provably false, and there are aspects that it explains in a more consistent manner than Darwinian evolution. I do not think it is the most accurate; but saying it's not true or impossible is just not something a real scientist would do.

[Kuciwalker]

Oh jeez

[Kuciwalker]

No true scientist would tell you that Intelligent Design is "false" or "impossible"

[FrostyBoy]

Originally posted by Barnabas


If I recall correctly the church never said anything against the theory,
they remained silent untill they accepted it, they had the prudence of never going agaisnt it due to having experience (like the galileo issue that made them look bad)

"The position of the Roman Catholic Church on the theory of evolution has changed over the last two centuries from a large period of no official mention, to a statement of neutrality in the 1950s, to a more explicit acceptance in recent years"

At the end of the bible they should put "Until further notice..."

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

No true scientist would tell you that Intelligent Design is "false" or "impossible"

What exactly is your problem with that?

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by snoopy369
There are other reasonable theories out there, including intelligent design,

Define "reasonable" and "theory." I would be inclined to say that intelligent design is neither of these things in the sense that evolution is.

but I am of the opinion that the general theory of evolution is a more likely theory, particularly as it is simpler (Occam's razor etc.) when explaining fossil records etc.

Please don't misuse Occam's Razor like that. The declaration that the simplest explanation is best is provisional upon all else being equal.

I however most certainly do not 'believe' in it, nor do I 'have faith' in it. Faith and belief are things you have in something you do not understand, but simply believe.

Do you wash your hands every day? Do you know, for a fact, that soap kills bacteria, or even that bacteria exist at all? Unless you're a biologist or someone else who routinely studies such things, probably not - but you still wash your hands (I hope) because you have it on good authority that it kills germs, and germs are bad for you. I don't really understand how soap works on a molecular level, and I don't know for a fact that germs even exist - scientists tell me they do, and since the job of the scientist is to know these things, I trust the scientific community. Evolution is no different.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by snoopy369
What exactly is your problem with that?

Plenty of "true scientists" will say that.