| CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network, picked up the story of Gov. Chris Christie's vacillation on the question of evolution v. creationism/"intelligent design." You knew they would; it's pandered right to them, and right to fundamentalist Christians who write checks to GOP candidates with the same vigor they write checks to TV preachers.
At this weekend's Democratic State Conference in Atlantic City, I caught up with 3 men who practice both science and politics - Congressman Rush Holt, Assemblyman Herb Conaway and congressional candidate Ed Potosnak. They all had something to say about Christie's creationist parry. That's below.
We don't generally reprint or link back to sources like CBN, but it's instructive to peep in on what Christie looks like over on their side. What they "heard" in what Christie said is in CBN's headline: Christie: Schools Should Be Able to Teach Creationism, and though their article is cautious in its language, that crap plays very well over there.
Let's face it; there are only a few explanations for Christie's statement. If he was pandering, CBN is here to tell you it worked. But, wait - was he? Is it possible Christie really believes the world began 6,000 years ago? What might he think fossils are? Creationism has been debunked and debunked again. Does he not know?
GOP voters are consistently tugged toward anti-intellectualism by their leaders, the dumbing down of an entire class of voters is in sharp contrast to the intelligent (if wrong) and well-thought out (if wrong) worldview that 30 years ago was outlined by the likes of William F. Buckley and other thinkers now called paleos by post-Reagan Republicans - overcome by a generation of climate change-denyers, creationist mythologizers, and dumb if pretty spokesmodels like Sarah Palin and Michele Bachmann, who is such a low-hanging fruit that a Cherry Hill high-schooler just went national with an invitation to debate her on the Constitution. Christie's statement is also germane because Christie wants to divert education funds to religious schools, a growing movement a lot of money is behind. Is he also unclear that it's science and not pretty religious myth that should be taught in schools?
Rush Holt: Congressman, physicist and the man who beat the Watson supercomputer in Jeopardy
(Christie's statement) doesn't reflect well on New Jersey. If New Jersey wants to reclaim its title as the invention state, the innovation state, the source of america's productivity, then it can't be a know-nothing state. What bothers me about creationists - or icreationism-lit known as "intelligent design" is known as, is that it's lazy thinking. We've gotten ahead - as a species and as an American economy - by thinking deliberately and concertively about how the world works - as shown by the evidence we've observed. Creationsim ignores evidence and creationists are choosing not to live in the real world.
If you want kids to be prepareed to get ahead in the real world, you should teach them to observe the hard fact of the real world.
Herb Conaway: Physician and Assemblyman:
Freedom of expression and freedom of thought are sacred in this country. Our birthright. But with respect to teaching, let's make sure we're teaching science in science class - not something else.
Ed Potosnak: Congressional candidate, former chemistry teacher:
A mistake we have made in the scientific community is referring to Darwin's theory instead of what it actually is, which is Dawrins law, which is that species evolve over time. While the explanation may change - hence why they call it a theory - the fact remains that our Governor is putting partisan politics and his political career ahead of scientific evidence. |
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