It’s no great surprise to hear Republicans come out with Creationist claptrap. But astonishingly, more than once, Baptist minister and US Presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee has said he doesn’t even realise why his views on evolution, the central principle of modern biology, are even relevant to his bid for office.
Bill Maher gave an excellent reply to this:
If someone believes that the earth is 6,000 years old and every scientist in the world is saying that it is billions of years old, why shouldn’t I take that into account when I am assessing the rationality of someone I am going to put into the highest office in the land?
Mike Huckabee doesn’t seem to understand why his Creationist beliefs might be an impediment to running the country. But as this Wired story observes:
Huckabee… We are asking if you would weigh rational scientific evidence that is subject to peer review and is reproducible in your most critical decisions about medical research, terrorist weapons threats, the environment, and education. My concern is that your answer to Bill Maher, “We just don’t know [the age of the earth]” is an indication that you are not including science in your reference shelf. If you were, you would know that we do know the age of the earth. It’s 4.5 billion years old.
If elected, Huckabee will be signing off on science research budgets and appointing judges who’ll decide evolution vs. creationism education cases at state level. He’s already contributing to an atmosphere in the US where it’s okay to disregard - even mock - science. And he doesn’t understand what’s wrong with that picture.
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One response
Being from the USA I must say that the places we refered to as the red states frighten me. This is where Huckabee is from. These are the states in the US that overwelmingly re-elected George Bush, while the rest of the USA was scratching their heads completely puzzled as to what these Southern red state people could be thinking. Huckabee seems to be the likely choice for our southern Red states. McCain isn’t very popular with these extemist. I live about 10 minutes from Philadelphia. Philly could be a million miles away from the Red states when you compare the views of the people. It’s like a different world. Lets just hope America gets it right next election. I’m all for change. No more Cowboy oil men, corrupt Halliburten execs, or Bible belt wingnuts running our Government.