She’s a self-confessed “hockey mum”; a pro-lifer, yet a supporter of the death penalty. But does Sarah Palin, John McCain’s candidate for the vice-presidency, promote the teaching of creationism in schools? In a live television debate in October 2006 (during her race for the Alaskan Governorship) the ‘creationism vs evolution’ issue arose.
Palin responded to a question posed by the Channel 7 moderator, saying [my emphases]:
Teach both. You know, don’t be afraid of information. Healthy debate is so important and it’s so valuable in our schools. I am a proponent of teaching both. And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher.
Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on both sides of the subject - creationism and evolution…It’s been a healthy foundation for me. But don’t be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides.
It seemed then, that Sarah Palin supported teaching creationism alongside evolution in science classes at US state schools. But “a clarification” came a few days later. Palin stated that she only encouraged ‘debate’:
I don’t think there should be a prohibition against debate if it comes up in class. It doesn’t have to be part of the curriculum.
It’s OK to let kids know that there are theories out there. They gain information just by being in a discussion.
But creationism is not a theory. It rejects scientific method - and facts - using instead a framework of misinformation to support religious fundamentalism. As a pseudoscience, it is unrivalled, undermining a huge number of scientific discoveries. Taught in schools, it arguably undermines the very essence of education.
So, for your information, Sarah Palin: the ‘debate’ is over. Evolution won.
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8 responses
I’m sure she’s making the right coded noises to say ‘Ihem monkeys ain’t no kin o’ mine’ without being too obvious about it. Of course creationism is a dogma, not a theory. That’s why it can’t be debated or discussed, making the concept of ‘teach the controversy’ meaningless. But since when was honesty a factor in religious politics?
PS Am I the only person wondering if she’s related to Michael Palin? And if so, has she ever worked in a very clean cheese shop?
So this where you’ve been hiding, Valdemar. A lot of people have been wondering about the Michael Palin question: the likelihood seems to be that there may be a very distant relationship with her husband, Todd, but nothing has been established.
What we do know about Sarah Palin, of course, is that she is a strong supporter of abstinence-only sex education. At least, she was…
We can look forward to more interesting revelations, as the McCain gang clearly didn’t do any background checks.
Valdemar: you are under the impression that the McCain camp would be able to make pre-emptive checks into the sick minds of Kos Kids bloggers and other dregs of the left, of the kind who invented the false pregnancy story and photoshopped her head onto a film star’s body. Oh, wait. You mean you were talking about her daughter’s pregnancy? A background check carried out six months ago would have turned up a pregnancy that started five months ago?
Ah, them dastardly Republicans. They ought to be sent to jail for violating the laws of time and space.
Hi Fabio, sorry I upset you with my incessant bazouki playing.
In my post I was referring to the steady drip of revelations, like the library censorship thing - which really annoyed me, I must say, more than her crazy religious pals in that video.
Also, press reports (possibly rubbish) say McCain staff didn’t phone local newspaper editors etc. Perhaps they - horror or horrors - relied on the internet to get the facts?
Heresiarch! We meet again. I think the Reichenbach Falls are over there, beyond the remarkably clean, cheese-free shelves.
For some spirited debate surrounding this post, read here:
http://my.telegraph.co.uk/counterknowledge/blog/2008/09/02/a_veep_creationist
Wow.. I’ll tell you, the republican spin machine is in full swing! The repeat it long and hard and assertive enough and it will be true? The twists to say that somehow this woman is more experienced than not only Obama, but more qualified than a Romney? She was obviously not the most qualified canidate.
However, she was a great pick in so far to bridge the gap with the conservative base in the party. Lieberman and Ridge were not chosen due to their abortion stance. Romney would have divided the religious right.
What’s more interesting to me is that her ex-churches pastor has said things like ‘going to hell if you vote for john kerry” in 2004, sounds sort of the opposite extreme of J Wright doesn’t it? Support Bush or go to hell? And he herself suggested that the iraq war, and a natural gas pipeline were gods work? Holy cow! For such limited experience, she sure has a lot of controversy! Her husband being a member of a successionist party, and a Pat Buchanan supporter? Pat himself says she stumped for him in 1996, and people forget that while she supported forbes in 1999… Buchanan ran in the reform party, and when she wore that ‘button’, forbes was out of the race. Such short memories.
Her husband works for BP? are you serious? I don’t know, if not the lack of experience, the religious, the suggested corruption and creationist arguments? Heaven forbid she get to be president and nominate a sumreme court justice.
Am I being harsh? I feel I’m being realistic. I might have voted for McCain with a decent running mate. His age and cancer history has that as a top concern. Romney scared me, mainly because too many conservatives loved him, but he wasn’t all that bad, and certainly very presidential and experienced.
The fact he picked her showed that he was going for the game changer.. the high risk canidate rather than the safe bet… I feel it will self destuct.. unless this spin machine can convince america otherwise.
As for Michael, the cheese shop, AND his bouzouki player. I’d take any of them over this ticket.. but alas, they were not american born, nor would you want this job with such an fine establishment.
Hi Tom!
I’m sure a lot of Americans are going through the same crisis. It’s easy for furriners like me to forget that a lot of US voters aren’t blindly partisan, but genuinely try to think about issues and the real merits of candidates. I don’t envy you. Not that our own UK elections are wonderful displays of rational debate, either…