Republicans turn their back on the Enlightenment

[NJMaverick]

Quote:Over in the US, the Republican party is choosing its presidential nominee to face Barack Obama in November. But whoever wins, science may lose.
The Grand Ol’ Party (GOP), as the Republicans are known, has an uncomfortable relationship with scientific fact. Rick Santorum, a frontrunner in the nomination race, has said of a fellow candidate: “If he wants to believe he is the descendant of a monkey then he has the right to believe that, but I disagree with him on this liberal belief.” Yes: acknowledging biology’s central premise is “liberal”. His opponents Ron Paul, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, Michelle Bachman and Newt Gingrich have all made noises doubting either climate change, evolution or both; only Jon Huntsman, a forlorn no-hoper, acknowledges the reality of both.
It’s not just the candidates. Fifty-two per cent of Republican voters reject the theory of evolution, saying mankind was created in present form within the last 10,000 years; just 31 per cent think man-made climate change is happening. In Congress, Republicans fought stem cell research and the HPV vaccine. Sarah Palin, ignoramus-in-chief, mocked “fruit-fly research” as a “pet project [with] little or nothing to do with the public good,” rejecting at a stroke most advances in genetics since Gregor Mendel.
“Is the GOP anti-science?” asks Chris Mooney, author of The Republican War on Science and Unscientific America. “It depends on your definition. If you mean ‘Takes many positions that are contrary to scientific understanding’, then yes; if it’s ‘Has an animus towards scientists’, then data suggests it’s true; if it’s ‘Wants to de-fund scientific research’, it's less clear, but to some extent true.”

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tomchi...ghtenment/

[jaxx]

I think the GOP is anti-science. Anything that denotes progress is immediately poo-poo'd by them. Stem cell research, climate change, evolution, etc. etc. etc. They are cave dwellers.

[pappy]

(01-10-2012 09:58 AM)jaxx Wrote:  I think the GOP is anti-science. Anything that denotes progress is immediately poo-poo'd by them. Stem cell research, climate change, evolution, etc. etc. etc. They are cave dwellers.

I am going to differ slightly. The Republican's believe in science that agrees with the agenda of their financial and "base" supporters.

If it is science funded by the oil industry, for example, it is empirical and trumps al other science.

If it is "science" that purports to prove that dinosaurs walked the Garden of Eden with men it is not to be questioned since it agrees with the Bible.

[jaxx]

Thanks for the reminder pappy. I forgot Jesus rode a dinosaur.

[pappy]

(01-10-2012 11:34 AM)jaxx Wrote:  Thanks for the reminder pappy. I forgot Jesus rode a dinosaur.

A little known fact (because Libruls rewrote the Bible to suit their Librul commie homosexual agenda) is that there were actually 14 apostles not 12. The Libruls wrote Fred and Barney out of the Bible.