I read something today that really put me in a lousy mood. It was the result of a poll that found that 58% of those who identify themselves politically as Republican refuse to accept the results of open scientific inquiry that state the age of Earth and the Universe, and the existence of observable evolution, among other things.

This is especially disturbing because these people likely don’t reject with equal fervor the convenience of their computer or smart-phone, or life-saving medical care which are present in their lives not through faith, but through science.

Why should the rest of us care? It’s simple. Some of these scientifically illiterate are in high offices. One need not look far to find a member of the Republican party, who also identifies himself or herself as a Christian, saying things that are simply outrageous distortions of established facts and then finding constituents, who, lacking critical thinking skills and having been taught to unconditionally accept any higher authority adopt them as truth. If you think that assertion may be hyperbole, check out the Texas GOP Platform  which specifically rejects the teaching of critical thinking skills because they are, in their opinion, anti-authoritarian.

I won’t list examples here, but this link will provide foundation.

It looks from my chair that there is a big disconnect here between the ideas, put forth by Republicans, of American Exceptionalism and a desire to be the technological leaders of the world, with what they say about science that challenges their religious ideologies. I have observed many of these political and religious leaders treat their Bible not as the infallible Word of God, but as some sort of spiritual buffet line. They scoop up that which they find palatable and self-justifying and leave behind the harder stuff. They’ll quote Leviticus when justifying anti-gay bigotry, but forget the other Leviticus verses that prohibits tattoos or eating shellfish. They’ll quote the Apostle Paul on marriage, but ignore him on how God says to treat women. (which is to prohibit them from teaching men, among other things).

So should it come as a surprise they apply the same methodology to science? We now live in a bizarre society where fundamentalists like Rep. Broun of Georgia, who dismayingly sits on the House Committee for Science, Space and Technology call scientists liars.  I wonder…..were his wife or child to face a difficult illness, would he still feel that way? Would he refuse to accept the best science has to offer and turn to his Bible, since he stated it was the “manufacturer’s handbook”? I’d bet not.  As I am fond of saying, science won the argument the first time a lightning rod was installed on a church.

The rest of it is evidence of an extinction burst. More on that later.

I think I really could sometimes. Quite a bit of the ideology lines up for me when I look at the big picture. Ideas of individual responsibility, small government and expanded freedoms are hallmarks of Republican thought. It looks pretty good, or at least, it used to.  Right now, it’s got one big hairy problem. Republicans were not typically a religious party, but they have moved further and further to the right. And as they have embraced religion, they have been eager to cast aspersions on the results of open scientific inquiry, and even intelligence itself. Rick Santorum famously said Obama was a snob because he wanted everyone to have access to higher education. Right now we have a man on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology who has publicly stated that “all that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, the Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell”.  He also maintains “I don’t believe that the Earth’s but about 9,000 years old. I believe it was created in six days as we know them. That’s what the Bible says.”

We have several GOP members who have stated that women cannot become pregnant as the result of rape. They are serious.

We should not tolerate such men in positions of power. And there is ample historical evidence as to the reason. Fundamentalism is the rejection of any new information, coupled with the favoring of entrenched dogma without regard to its veracity. We have seen the horrors of the rise of Islamic fundamentalists with the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and how even a brave 14 year old girl is not immune to a death sentence for daring to speak out. We are seeing a rejection of scientific inquiry from those on the right, cloaked in a suspicion of science, because they are not scientifically literate. We have more than 40% of the American population accepting that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old simply because they need the timeline they’ve extrapolated from the Bible to lend credence to their beliefs. I find this anti-science bent to be particularly troubling because these same people aren’t as willing to forsake science when it is convenient. When a loved one is sick, for example, with cancer or other difficult disease, they demand the best medical science has to offer. They happily bash science through social media platforms provided them by the results of scientific inquiry. They fly on planes made possible through advances in science, not faith.

The Founders left all references to God out of the Constitution for a reason. They made it so that religion was a personal matter that informed the person, not the government. They strove to prevent the installation of an official religion having witnessed the harm it caused in Europe and England. But the GOP is now trying to rewrite history to make it seem as though quite the opposite was desired:

The Texas Republican Party Platform 2002

“Our Party pledges to do everything within its power to dispel the myth of separation of church and state.”

And it hasn’t become any more moderate since. They now oppose teaching higher order thinking skills. Forbes has a commentary here.

I’d really like to think the Republican Party believes in American Exceptionalism, and in personal freedom but how can they, when they seek to deny American students the abilities to compete in an ever-more-global marketplace?

I want to know whatever happened to the Republican Party that freed the slaves. The one that believed in  “free soil, free labor, free speech, and free men.” That party was in favor of the expansion of human rights, and even suffrage. They were moral, without being overtly religious. I wonder, what ever happened to them?