Ron Paul isn't buying "theory" of evolution

Is this guy an idiot or what? And he's a doctor??

A Christmas miracle

On this Christmas Day, of all days, I have come across a video that has convinced me, finally, that my belief in evolution has been wrong all along.

It only took a jar of peanut butter to make the truth clear to me:

Creationists' fecal roster

Landover Baptist.net, a satirical "religious" site, has this list of the kind of people creationists have cause to regard with suspicion or disdain because of their views on evolution.

It's funny (and scary).

Flat-earther fired for being flat-earther

Oh, the injustice of it all.

A creationist dude has been shitcanned from a research lab because he doesn't believe in evolution.

The guy has filed a lawsuit seeking $500,000 for the trampling of his civil rights.

Flat-Earthers who walk upright

The New York Times magazine had an interesting piece yesterday on a gang of creationist geologists.

My favorite is the guy who said this: “If all the evidence in the universe turned against creationism, I would be the first to admit it, but I would still be a creationist because that is what the Word of God seems to indicate. Here I must stand.”

That isn't faith. That's idiocy.

Whoremonger wants to give $100,000 from taxpayers to flat-earthers

Stories like this give me opportunities to write fun headlines like the one above. Thank you, David Vitter.

It's fun to feel superior

I suppose I should be alarmed at the fact that most Americans, according to a poll released today, believe that the nation's Founding Fathers wrote Christianity into the U.S. Constitution.

But I'm not alarmed. Instead, I take great pleasure -- smug pleasure, to be sure -- in knowing that most of my fellow citizens are so stupid. It gives me a feeling of superiority to have actually read the Constitution and to have noticed that it makes no mention whatever of God, or Jesus, or the Creator or any such thing.

Hey, world, look at me! I'm fully aware that the Constitution is entirely a secular document. Most Americans can't say that. They're not aware. Most Americans are stupid. I'm so proud of myself!

There was a time when such widespread ignorance worried me. What's going to become of us, I asked myself, with so many of our people so unaware of even the most basic of America's founding principles? But I learned to chill. There isn't much I can do about it, anyway.

Most Americans also say they don't believe in evolution, despite the overwhelming scientific evidence supporting it. Not much I can do about that, either. All I can do is feel intellectually superior, which, as I say, is not without its pleasures.

Christian and Islamic fundamentalists are equally nutty on the issue of human origins

A new study based on public surveys in the United States, Japan and 32 European countries shows that only the Turks rank lower than Americans in public acceptance of evolution.

The story on the Fox News Web site (yeah, really, Fox News) explains the sorry situation thusly:

Among the factors contributing to America's low score are poor understanding of biology, especially genetics, the politicization of science and the literal interpretation of the Bible by a small but vocal group of American Christians, the researchers say.

"American Protestantism is more fundamentalist than anybody except perhaps the Islamic fundamentalists, which is why Turkey and we are so close," said study co-author Jon Miller of Michigan State University.

I wonder if your typical American Christian creationist knows of his or her philosophical kinship on this matter with your typical raging Islamist toting an AK-47.

Dr. Frank's here with disturbing news

The latest Gallup Poll shows that most Republicans don't believe in evolution.

Yipes! Even The Rascal didn't think the situation was that bad.

Gallup's Dr. Frank Newport has the numbers here.

Too bad Harlem High won't do it again

The current Broadway revival of the play "Inherit the Wind" brings to mind the huge controversy of 44 years ago this spring when a teacher at Harlem High School in suburban Rockford staged a student production of the piece.

The play, the movie version of which starred Spencer Tracy and Frederic March (above), is based on the celebrated trial of John T. Scopes, a high school teacher in Dayton, Tenn., who was arrested in 1925 for teaching biological evolution in defiance of state law.

In 1963, Harlem High dramatics teacher Ruth Ann Johnston's plans to put on the play prompted objections from some folks on biblical grounds. School Principal Harold Moore and District Superintendent Carl Dannenfeldt bowed to the pressure and told Johnston to find another play.

When Johnston refused, the School Board told her she couldn't use the Harlem auditorium for such blasphemy, whereupon she and her students accepted an offer to stage the play in a local movie theater.

Johnston subsequently was fired. The flap drew national attention, and hundreds of Harlem district taxpayers signed a petition seeking Johnston's reinstatement, but to no avail.

Wouldn't another fuss like that be fun these days? And a rousing debate about evolution would do the community good.