Hate Science? Vote Republican

By Cernig

Joe Gandelman wonders if Mike Huckabee's candidacy bid - who doesn’t believe in evolution, just intelligent design - will be affected by his ignorance of science. Joe writes:

If the Republicans nominate someone who says he doesn’t believe in evolution there is a huge chunk of American voters who simply will not vote for him or her. His vote would be limited largely the Republican base. And BOTH parties will need independent voters to win in 2008.

But this is the continuing problem with early primaries. Each party’s base increasingly dictates the stands of the candidates but in a general election that could spell trouble.

As Joe rightly points out, the GOP's radically religious base hate science just as much as Huckabee does.

How much? Well, according to the latest poll - a lot.

More Americans believe in a literal hell and the devil than Darwin’s theory of evolution, according to a new Harris poll released on Thursday.

...The poll of 2,455 U.S. adults from Nov 7 to 13 found that 82 percent of those surveyed believed in God, a figure unchanged since the question was asked in 2005.

It further found that 79 percent believed in miracles, 75 percent in heaven, while 72 percent believed that Jesus is God or the Son of God. Belief in hell and the devil was expressed by 62 percent.

…Only 42 percent of those surveyed said they believed in Darwin’s theory which largely informs how biology and related sciences are approached.

…”Born-again Christians are more likely to believe in the traditional elements of Christianity than are Catholics or Protestants. For example, 95 percent believe in miracles, compared to 87 percent and 89 percent among Catholics and Protestants,” according to the poll.

“On the other hand only 16 percent of born-again Christians, compared to 43 percent of Catholics and 30 percent of Protestants, believe in Darwin’s theory of evolution.”

(Although it seems to me that their God must be deliberately and seriously trying to push even their blind faith sometimes. A mummified dino with skin still intact? He's taking the mickey, surely!)

The last six years have been a long litany of Republican denial of science - on teaching evolution, on climate change, on contraception, on stem cell research, on basic government funding and on not interfering politically with research. That's what the GOP base wants, that's what they get. Indeed, the only science they seem to like is cable TV and things that go BOOM in a really big way.

If you hate science, vote Republican.