Evolution Is A Lie From Hell! (Republican Rep. Paul Broun)

[Moontanman]

Evolution Is A Lie From Hell! (Republican Rep. Paul Broun)

 

Everytime I start thinking about it might be possible for fundy theists and reasonable people to live together this stuff pops up. This guy is truly deluded or at the very least he knows which lies to tell which audience and he serves on the science and technology committee. I see less and less reason to be tolerant of theist fundies and every reason to begin the atheist revolution! Yes with the forces of hell behind us how can we lose... Stupidity strikes every .0005 seconds...

 

 

"Rep. Paul Broun, who serves on the House Science Committee, told a church-sponsored banquet in his home state of Georgia that the theories of evolution and the big bang are "lies straight from the pit of hell." Broun has long been known as one of the most conservative members of Congress, and an outspoken conservative Christian. He wanted to declare 2010 "the year of the Bible," points out NBC News...".* The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down

[swansont]

He's not the only anti-science Republican individual serving on that committee.

[Moontanman]

He's not the only anti-science Republican individual serving on that committee.

 

 

They mention two others in the video, one of them is the infamous Akins guy and the other is Quale... I am beginning to think the fix is in...

[iNow]

Sign the petition saying that members of our congressional science committees should at least understand the basic tenets of science (in much the same way that we expect our math teachers to understand basic algebra):

 

http://www.change.org/petitions/house-science-committee-remove-rep-paul-broun

[swansont]

Sign the petition saying that members of our congressional science committees should at least understand the basic tenets of science (in much the same way that we expect our math teachers to understand basic algebra):

What? Treat them like teachers? You want this to be merit-based, instead of them having tenure? You are mad, sir!

 

[Moontanman]

Another group of winners, slavery was a blessing in disguise!!! This stuff just gets worse and worse, do any republicans stand up to the burning stupid the Republican party seems to embrace unquestioningly? Either the Republican party has abandoned the zeitgeist or their finger is on it's pulse and the rest of us are the walking dead...

 

[akh]

I agree. I for one, am tired of being shamed into not speaking against this kind of crap. These people are about as backwards and delusional as one can get. I can't decide if they actually believe this garbage or whether they are just trying to hold onto a voting base. Either way, its a ridiculous to allow them to hold office, let alone serve on the science committee. I think flies have been intentionally placed in the ointment.

 

This should bring up some good discussion the next meeting of my local chapter. It can be trying to live in bible thumping red state, but there are some here (mostly northern or western transplants) that have more clarity of mind.

 

 

 

Edit: Crappy spelling due to haste.

Edited October 10, 2012 by akh

[John Cuthber]

There's a lot of them about

Charlie Fuqua, Arkansas Legislative Candidate, Endorses Death Penalty For Rebellious Children In Book

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/08/charlie-fuqua-arkansas-candidate-death-penalty-rebellious-children_n_1948490.html?utm_hp_ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

 

 

(Great name BTW)

Once again, I find myself wondering where the left wing nut jobs are.

[Moontanman]

I agree. I for one, am tired of being shamed into not speaking against this kind of crap. These people are about as backwards and delusional as one can get. I can't decide if they actually believe this garbage or whether they are just trying to hold onto a voting base. Either way, its a ridiculous to allow them to hold office, let alone serve on the science committee. I think flies have been intentionally placed in the ointment.

 

This should bring up some good discussion the next meeting of my local chapter. It can be trying to live in bible thumping red state, but there are some here (mostly northern or western transplants) that have more clarity of mind.

 

 

I knew there had to be a reasonable republican someplace... In my area it seems like it's a contest to see who can be the most batshitcrazy, winning is everything, stupid is a strength, lies are revealed truth, and the insane have taken over the asylum... to me it's terrifying... It's like all the crazy bullshit we have worked so hard to overcome has risen from the grave like the walking dead...

 

John the left wing nuts have fled to the bunkers in fear... the brain dead are coming...

 

Yeah, I just watched the latest season of "The Walking Dead"...

[JohnB]

Sorry to digress, but am I the only one finding the subtitles on those clips extremely funny?

 

"What we should run the government on is the whole in Colorado"

[ydoaPs]

Is it really that much to ask to have people on the science committees to be able to pass a high school science exam?

[Phi for All]

Is it really that much to ask to have people on the science committees to be able to pass a high school science exam?

Only if you publish the results when they fail.

[imatfaal]

Is it really that much to ask to have people on the science committees to be able to pass a high school science exam?

 

One of the things I couldn't get my head around was that Broun apparently has a Bachelors Degree in Chemistry and a Medical Degree - so he would seem like a good choice for the committee, if he wasn't fruit-loop crazy.

 

How far can a legislator go before he steps out of his mandate; Broun was saying he uses the bible to guide every decision, what about if a legislator said he rolled a die, or used a pack of tarot cards, or asked his friend Al?

[iNow]

Also on that committee? Todd Akin of the "if it's legitimate rape, the woman has ways to shut that whole thing down" fame.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2012/08/23/opinion/martonosi-akin-science/index.html

[imatfaal]

Also on that committee? Todd Akin of the "if it's legitimate rape, the woman has ways to shut that whole thing down" fame.

 

http://www.cnn.com/2...ence/index.html

 

It gets worse!

 

In the UK the equivalent committees are there to bolster a scientific evidence-based approach to policy, to scrutinize legislation with a science funding/ethics concern, and to promote science; and we lament the inability of the Houses to provide enough science graduates to sit on those committees. But it seems that there must be a, spoken or unspoken, acknowledgement within the US version that the committee is there to control and constrain science. I realise that funding is very different - committees in the UK do not really get involved directly, and that the committees in the USA are massively more powerful than those in the UK; but it still strikes me that the only reason that one places such backward luddites in a position of power in a science arena is to stiffle and halt progress (or at least pay lipservice to those who wish to do so)

[Phi for All]

How far can a legislator go before he steps out of his mandate; Broun was saying he uses the bible to guide every decision, what about if a legislator said he rolled a die, or used a pack of tarot cards, or asked his friend Al?

What if they used Kabbalah? Or the I Ching? or the Book of Mormon?

 

It gets worse!

 

In the UK the equivalent committees are there to bolster a scientific evidence-based approach to policy, to scrutinize legislation with a science funding/ethics concern, and to promote science; and we lament the inability of the Houses to provide enough science graduates to sit on those committees. But it seems that there must be a, spoken or unspoken, acknowledgement within the US version that the committee is there to control and constrain science. I realise that funding is very different - committees in the UK do not really get involved directly, and that the committees in the USA are massively more powerful than those in the UK; but it still strikes me that the only reason that one places such backward luddites in a position of power in a science arena is to stiffle and halt progress (or at least pay lipservice to those who wish to do so)

It's kind of a love/hate relationship between government, business and the public when it comes to science. Business needs the possibilities provided by knowledge, but it doesn't want the public educated too much or they start questioning the carefully funded status quo ("Why are AA batteries so expensive? If the materials were really that valuable, wouldn't we be recycling them?"). Government is torn between the businesses who help them fund campaigns and the public who votes them into office. And the public would probably love to learn more about everything, but also cares little for putting much money or effort into it. The public wants information in bite-sized chunks and science information is like eating a pizza; you take a normal bite of crust but a lot more cheese and toppings than you planned on comes off with it.

[Jens]

As a european it scares me that they can still be succesful despite (or even because of) those statements made in public. Not talking about republicans in general but specificly about those you have shown above: If those stupid (that is not the issue) and selfconfident (the combination is the problem) or manipulating (the one is as bad as the other) people ever obtain the majority and the power, it will end up like in Iran (actually they had a democracy there before the Shah).

 

This is why it is so important that you (especially those with the thousands of posts: Moontanman, swansont, iNow, John Cuthber, ydoaPs, Phi for all, imatfaal and all the others...) invested and still invest so much of your time and try to help at least the community of readers here to understand science better (hopefully beeing multiplicators):

- Answering even stupid questions helps

- Bringing the discussions out of the closed shop of scientific papers in which you have to pay 20$ per article for reading, if you are not part of the closed community

 

A political take on it:

Partially the issue is also that it is so easy for religous fundamentalists to catch hearts and votes, because the economic money-driven society (which invents funny terms like "human capital") gives a lot of people the feeling to be loosers (or actually really considers them as loosers). We are getting used to things which are actually weird. Just imagine you live not in an anonymous society of several millions but in a small society of lets say 50 people. Who would ever consider in a small group that 10% of them are not doing anything helpful for the group simply because others can do it better? (and even if they ask for work they are excluded?). I am not a dreamer and of course there is no simple solution and the issue is always on both sides. I just want to point out that our big anonymous societies do not behave like the small teams humans are made for (sorry, I mean: have evolved in ). Science alone will not solve the issue.

 

{sorry for the probably wrong conjunctive mood. I am not native speaker and hated foreign languages at school }

Edited October 22, 2012 by Jens

[iNow]

As a european it scares me that they can still be succesful despite (or even because of) those statements made in public. Not talking about republicans in general but specificly about those you have shown above: If those stupid (that is not the issue) and selfconfident (the combination is the problem) or manipulating (the one is as bad as the other) people ever obtain the majority and the power, it will end up like in Iran (actually they had a democracy there before the Shah).

Have you seen the thread showing the similarities between them to the Taliban in America, and the poignant video from a new fictional television series on HBO that shines light on this?

 

 

http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/68653-the-taliban-in-america/

[Jens]

Have you seen the thread showing the similarities between them to the Taliban in America, and the poignant video from a new fictional television series on HBO that shines light on this?

 

Thanks. Surprising! In German or French TV such a thing would rather be presented as a satire. Good satire always is a bit too much than reality but has a very solid hidden center of truth in it. ... and fundamentalists of all kinds hate satire (means you hit them as hard with satire as by claiming you really mean it). It is very dangerous for fundementalists if people start to laugh. And there are a lot of reasons to laugh.

 

I stick to my variant of it . In case they get the power it would be closer to the situation in Iran, where the well established conservative families (the priests are also often big land owners) use religion to keep their power. The Taliban have a more revolutionist tendency.

Edited October 26, 2012 by Jens