Are Republicans getting stupider nationwide?

Any candidate for public office who is so out of touch with reality as to deny the fact that evolution happens should be disqualified. Anyone that ignorant and that gullible should not be in any position of authority. I am amazed we are having this debate in the 21st century. It shames America that nearly half of its adults are so misinformed on this matter. It is just as ridiculous and just as wrong as if half the adults thought the earth is flat.

In a governor's race going on in Alabama, one Republican candidate accused the other of daring to teach science in science classrooms instead of teaching religion in science classrooms. In his reply to this attack, the accused Republican said he is just as much of a moron as the other guy attacking him for allegedly being sane.

In a governor's race in Maine, seven Republican candidates were asked if they thought intelligent design or creationism should be taught alongside evolution in public school science classrooms. Three said yes, and one (Matt Jacobson) said to teach evolution in philosophy class and teach science in science class.

For candidates in Alabama to make such a big deal about being fundamentalist Christians is no surprise, but Maine too? Are Republicans around the country brain-dead idiots out of touch with what is real? Why is fundamentalist evangelical Christianity doing this to America, to humanity? Do they think they bring honor to God or Christ by spreading lies that are easily shown to be false by anyone who honestly examines the evidence for evolution and the age of the earth?

Sarah Palin is a nut job

The world is in danger if fundamentalists of any religion have access to "the button" to end the world. Words are tools used to communicate meaning, but sometimes groups of words are not meant to be taken literally but instead are used to communicate images or metaphors. Fundamentalists don't seem to understand this. Not only that, but generally fundamentalism is the most ignorant, arrogant and intolerant form of religious interpretation. Fundamentalist Hindus, Jews and Moslems cause problems elsewhere in the world, but the biggest problem facing the United States of America today is the appalling ignorance, arrogance and intolerance of fundamentalist Christians.

Thank God for Evolution!

I just saw Michael Dowd speak about evolutionary theology at a local church. He is the author of Thank God for Evolution! and other works. I was leery of his ideas at first, but what he said for the most part agrees with what I know to be true.

While walking to the church (a few blocks from my house), I passed an elderly couple who were walking to their church, a fundamentalist evangelical Christian one. The subject of evolution came up, and the old man said it is a lie. He said the final result will be who gets to go to heaven. I said that the Bible teaches God made man from dust and science says much the same thing. My final words to him were to ask if he also believed the earth was flat, because that is what a literal reading of the Bible indicates. I said if you're going to insist on fundamentalism, you might as well go all the way.

I went up to see Michael Dowd after his presentation. I commented that I recognized he was familiar with Alan Watts, since he had used the analogy of people coming out of the universe the same way apples come out of apple trees, one that Alan Watts used in many of his talks. Michael Dowd did not remember where he had heard it, but thanked me for giving him the source. The subject of plagiarism came up, and I mentioned the famous case of George Harrison. I was surprised nobody knew about it, so I explained how My Sweet Lord used the same chords and melody as the Chiffons' He's So Fine.

I waited a bit and then offered to play my evolution song for Mr. Dowd and those standing around. Nobody minded, so I played it. The television reporter asked if I had written it, and I said it was one of hundreds of songs I had written playing guitar while riding a bicycle for tens of thousands of miles. Mr. Dowd expressed surprise at that, and the television reporter assured him that it was true, that he (the reporter) had seen me himself and I had been in the local newspaper.

Later a woman came up and asked Mr. Dowd to explain how free will exists. He said we have a choice to decide which of the many conflicting drives within us we will follow. I mentioned the episode of The Changeling from the original Star Trek television series, where a robot spacecraft absorbed the contents of Lieutenant Uhura's mind and described it as "a mass of conflicting impulses."

I could have stayed longer but it was getting late so I left.