Friday, August 29, 2008

Sarah Palin on EvolutionCreationism

Well, it seems McCain has further embraced an anti-science agenda with his pick as Sarah Palin as his running mate.

The Science Bloggers are a bit up in arms over this. I think there is some hope that she/McCain will drift back to the middle on this at some point but they both now seem to fall in the camp of the Intelligent Design supporters. It is the "independent" streak both do seem to show occasionally that gives me hope that if they do get elected, they will not be as tied to the ID supporters as they will be during the election.

Anyway, here are some things I found on the web about Palin's evolution views:

NewMiner.Com: in response to written questions in a 2002 election ...
Q: The education section of the Republican Party of Alaska’s platform states “We support giving Creation Science equal representation with other theories of the origin of life. If evolution is taught, it should be presented as only a theory.” Do you support this position? Why?

A: I support this plank in the Republican Party’s platform. I believe society can have healthy debates on scientific theories, so equal representation of creation and evolution shouldn’t be an offense.
Anchorage Daily News in 2006 reported
The volatile issue of teaching creation science in public schools popped up in the Alaska governor's race this week when Republican Sarah Palin said she thinks creationism should be taught alongside evolution in the state's public classrooms.

Palin was answering a question from the moderator near the conclusion of Wednesday night's televised debate on KAKM Channel 7 when she said, "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."
Most other thigns I have seen are rehashing these two stories in some way. If anyone has any other detail I would love to see it.

Examples of blog posts on this issue include:

18 comments:

  1. .
    She's too smart to actually believe in 'intelligent design'. Even more Hillary supporters will go for McCain now. Obama is no longer a near certainty. Heaven forbid something happens to McCain, but I believe Palin would rise to the occasion. She has the right attitude. Everyone knows Obama is NOT ready for POTUS, Palin is only for the VP. Look at Dan Quayle.

    YEY SARAH PALIN! YEY John McCain! Great pick! The 1st woman for the GOP VP? SCORE!

    She's conservative! SCORE! She's a Governor! SCORE! She's pro-drilling! She's a hunter! SCORE! She played hockey in school! SCORE! She's pro-life! And she respects women! SCORE! She fights corruption! SCORE! She's high-energy! SCORE! She's tough! SCORE! She's got 5 kids! SCORE! Her son is going to Iraq in the Armed Forces! SCORE! She's married to a Blue-collar professional! SCORE! She's smart! SCORE! She's young! SCORE!

    And she's a Hotty to boot! SCORE! The Left is going to go nuts! SCORE!
    .
    absurd thought -
    God of the Universe says
    never elect a woman

    who's a conservative
    she's just a gender traitor

    .
    absurd thought -
    God of the Universe says
    just HOPE to pay more taxes

    DREAM about high fuel prices
    CHANGE PROGRESS to move backwards

    .
    All real freedom starts with freedom of speech. Without freedom of speech, there can be no real freedom.
    .
    Philosophy of Liberty Cartoon
    .
    Help Halt Terrorism Today!
    .
    USpace

    :)
    .

    ReplyDelete
  2. Perhpas I was unclear or you misread my posting. I did not say I was for or against her ticket with McCain here. I am just trying to post on what her views are on something I consider iportant, which is science education. I have posted on McCain and Obama previously and at some point will post on Biden too.

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  3. Yuppers. She's in favor of discussion and debate in our schools.

    That's something academicians strongly oppose. Yuppers. Academicians all believe the same thing, and they hold conferences mostly just to pat themselves on the back about how smart they looked while happily reading their latest research to each other.

    No doubt Palin is a regular anti-academic, Bible thumping, snake passing, Kool-aid drinking, child marrying, card carrying cult member. Thank (g)od we found out before the elections!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I am still reserving judgement on her. I liked McCain quite a bit until he started to kiss up to the extreme right to help him get elected. Getting elected in Alaska is no easy task either so perhaps she will be more open to science than seems. As for academics agreeing with each other at conferences, you must not go to many or not to the ones I go to. The academics I know like nothing more than to challenge the orthodoxy at meetings. However, most of the time they try to do this with evidence. If there were evidence against evolution by natural selection no doubt people would be dying to present it. This is in fact why evolution by natural selection is considered so important by scientists --- evidence for it is overwhelming.

    ReplyDelete
  5. uspace: There are many otherwise thoughtful people who check their scientific sense at the door when dealing with evolution vs creationism (ID).

    We have had eight years of a POTUS who advocates "teach the controversy". This shows he either has no idea of the science involved or chooses to take his position for political reasons. No wonder the rest of the world thinks we're a nation of religious ignoramuses!

    I think most Hillary supporters are smart enough to know that voting a McCain/Palin ticket is, if nothing else, a straight line to repeal of Roe v Wade after a few more Supreme Court appointments. That is not the legacy Hillary wants.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Give up on this nonsense. Sarah Palin is a hard core right wing Christian in every way, who has also sold her soul to the oil companies. She doesn't believe in evolution, global warming stem cell research, government involvement in health care....I could go on and on. If McCain should become incapacitated, we would have as president a fanatic, ignorant right winger.

    The selection of Palin shows beyond a doubt that McCain does not give a damn about the welfare of this country. If this choice is not enough to send his misbegotten candidacy into the trash bin of history, then God help us.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yes, Green Eagle. I am still looking into where she stands on all these things. If she indeed does not support all those things then her selection is a bad things for science and society.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Pro-life must be more than pro-human fetus. All life on this earth including human life depends on the delicate web of the natural world, and she denies the harsh realities of global warming, even as her state is so severely affected. She would overturn the Endangered Species Act, she decries universal health care, and most likely opposes stem cell research and other important medical advances that would improve peoples' lives (and that demonstrate FACTUAL evolutionary principles--she even believes that evolution is a theory.)

    Pro-life must mean pro-planet and all of life. If she truly represented "life" in this aspect I would respect her views. But as is she is dangerous for us and for future generations.

    The planet needs some common sense in its leaders.

    ReplyDelete
  9. McCain is old and Palin oldfashioned and both did not pay any attention in their science classes or simply can't remember them. Could someone please teach them what science really is and how it works and that a theory in science is based on facts, lots of them! Will go back to my science class tomorrow and teaching my students about theories in science and the scientific process. Who knows one day one of my students might run for office. Hopefully they will remember.....
    I thought Bush was as bad as it could get, but seeing McCain and Palin talking it looks like the worst might not be over yet.
    BTW, I hope that the first woman in the white house, one day in the future, will have a science background or at least will be well educated in the field of science.
    Until then the US will continue its downward spiral while the rest of the world will continue to build their importance in all areas of sciences.
    And a response to the blogger who wants a Hotty in the white house. Why don't you campain for Paris Hilton. At least she doesn't take out kids to shoot deer for trophy.
    BTW I was a Hillary supporter but I will certainly NOT support Palin/McCain, nor does any other woman who was serious in supporting the democrats to begin with.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Yeah, the more I see of McCain and Palin the more depressed I get in terms of their potential to base decisions on science and rational thinking. Being mavericks is one thing if the decisions are somewhat rational but buck the system. Being mavericks simply because they do not think about what they do carefully is a bit much.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Palin’s positions:

    Ban books that offend a religious viewpoint
    Teach religion in science class
    Carry weapons
    Ban sex education
    Fire subordinates if they are too kind to ex-inlaws that we dont like
    Ban abortion even in case of rape or incest


    The taliban would love her

    ReplyDelete
  12. Pam

    I was hoping to like her before her speech, just so I would not freak out too much about this election. But the speech was agonizing. The line that got me was her implication that we should not respect the "innocent until proven guilty" thing because there are terrorists out there. She said

    ""Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America," she stated before asking, "He's worried that someone won't read them their rights?

    Maybe we should ask if she supports torture too?

    ReplyDelete
  13. yes I heard that too, That is just about when I turned the TV off. Clearly she supports torture, as does McCain (as long as it is not him any longer)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Yuppers, Sarah Palin has ridiculous views on evolution and creationism that are so far out in right-field that the US will become a laughingstock of the modern world. It's religious fanaticism, as bad as anything we mock in the Middle East.

    Yuppers, if you dispute the science behind evolution, then you'd better go back to living in caves, because all the great technology we have, sure enough, comes from science. You can't keep all the great medications and computers and airplanes without also keeping the basic science that underlies the TRUTH of EVOLUTION.

    (If that isn't obvious to you, then your public schools have failed and you should also be fighting for more funding for education!)

    YES OBAMA is the person we need leading the country now. YES OBAMA is the only candidate who is trying to bring us all together instead of driving us apart with wedge issues.

    DON'T FORGET that the President is NOT your friend! They're the President, and you don't have to "like" them the way you like your friends. We need a president that can rally this country with a unifying message that gets us on a good track — Obama is the man for the job.

    Yuppers, you can go with McCain and Palin, and you can watch this great country keep going down the toilet like is has been through the Bush years. THE WAR IN IRAQ IS MORE THAN 5 YEARS OLD! Every time Bush speaks about it, he says the same thing -- "the situation is getting better, the Iraqi troops are almost ready to take over, yadda yadda yadda..." Yuppers, MISSON ACCOMPLISHED, all right! Remember that joke?!

    My fellow Americans, we all need to WAKE UP and get to work for a better U.S. of A. Let's work together and solve our problems through honest and sensible hard work.

    YES OBAMA, we need a President that is living in the 21st Century, where basic science has a place in making America great.

    ReplyDelete
  15. MMGW is a scam. We believe in evolution, or rather we know evolution is true due to the facts. But the facts don't support MMGW, people can only believe in it, and have faith in it, just like a religion.

    Sun activity makes temps rise and that warming raises CO2 levels. Warming happens first.

    McCain & Palin could never overturn Roe V. Wade, I don't think it will ever happen. What McCain/Palin will probably do is make sure that pregnant teens read a lot of testimony from other women who have had abortions, and how they have felt over the years about what they did. The pros and the cons.

    Not just about how great abortion is and that kids should automatically choose an abortion as if having babies be born, even if they are given up for adoption, is always some sort of "punishment" (to use Obama's word), with always bad outcomes for the mother and the child.

    There is a shortage of babies for adoption in America; why should couples wishing to adopt be forced to adopt babies from other countries?

    absurd thought -
    God of the Universe says
    never mock Democrats

    it's just their religion
    you RIGHT-WING INFIDEL


    absurd thought -
    God of the Universe says
    NEVER ELECT a woman

    OR a minority
    if they are Right of center
    .

    ReplyDelete
  16. I'm not sure of her exact beliefs, but I've read that even Einstein believed in some sort of impersonal god because in his research on relativity he decided that the universe had to have had some sort of start/beginning, and he thought something created it. If Sarah Palin really believes 100%in creationism and that dinosaurs were around 4000 years ago, then yes that's cooky, but maybe she's not that crazy.

    And evolution IS a theory as far as I knew. In science a theory is the closest thing to a proof that there is. It's different than a philosophical theory.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I absolutely agree with Sara Palin. ALL theories should be taught in schools. I cannot understand for the life of me why Spaghetti Monsterism isn't taught!!

    See : http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/

    Seriously, these right wing "Christian" advocates are all for teaching religious beliefs in science class as long as it is THEIR beliefs that are being taught. Science is SCIENCE. For all it's complexity, it is a rather harsh and brutal discipline. Pseudo scientific garbage does not belong. If it gets in, what's next? The earth as center of the universe?

    I will not allow my children to be taught religion in science class. They go to church for that.

    ReplyDelete
  18. To all the evolutionists out there: I feel very sorry for you. God's Word states very clearly about Creationism in Genesis in the Bible. This is the complete opposite of evolution. Palin is breath of fresh air in this stale wicked nation! Thank God!

    ReplyDelete

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