Republicans and Science

[creature386]

I just found this article:
blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2014/01/gop_is_increasingly_anti-scien.html
It says that less than half of the Republicans believe in evolution. Even worse, in 2009, most of them believed in evolution, but now this number declined:

www.pewforum.org/2013/12/30/publics-views-on-human-evolution/
At least the majority democrats and American citizens believe in evolution.
Here a quote from the first article, which nicely explains, why this is a problem (although it should be obvious):

These block-headed leaders are driven first by ideology, and tailor their information to fit — fact-checkers be damned. As Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank notes, the GOP has become increasingly driven by its fundamentalism, as it grows more religious, white, old and homogenous.

This shift toward absolutist views doesnÂ’t just threaten the party itself, but the country as a whole. The whole point of science, after all, is to identify an objective reality, independent of political biases. How do you make public policy with people who stand against science itself?

The Democrats are supposed to be the party of change. But in fact, it’s the nature of conservatism that is truly changing — and for the worse.

By the way, most of the GOP members deny climate change too. Regarding the high green gas emissions per capita in the USA, this is of course no problem (sarcasm).

[Grey]

As this is about the interior politics of another nation than mine, I won't comment.

[Deleted]

Canadians and Mexicans must be really embarrassed that they belong in the same continent as those ignorant buffoons.

The more idiotic candidates really need to be weeded out as early as possible and the more intelligent ones favored for positions in power.

[creature386]

This thread was not intended to bash Americans. My post shows that the majority of citizens don't deny climate change (although it is possible that your first sentence was only directed at the fundamentalist Republicans). If the theory I wrote down in brackets is true, I agree. At least Romney (the leader of the Republicans) doesn't deny global warming:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_positions_of_Mitt_Romney#During_2012_presidential_campaign
He might oppose strong (only strong one, not generally) commitment to renewable energy, but this has economic reasons and this thread is in the religion section.

[Godzillasaurus]

^You'd be surprised at how many people deny Global Warming (or anything similar for that matter). Many people try to disprove it claiming to be the work of the devil and stuff like that

[creature386]

I don't deny the fact that there are many fundamentalists (trust me, I have seen so many "Christian" opinions on it, using cold winters to "prove" it wrong), I just wanted to point out that at least the majority is capable of rational thinking.

[theropod]

This winter, at least in Europe (not exactly in North America tough) is a nice demonstration of global warming. However weÂ’ve also had some really cold winters lately. The seasons seem to be shifting and intermingling if you ask me, right now the wheather here reminds me of April or May, but last year we had hard frost in those very months.

[creature386]

I would be a bit more careful with attributing these winters to climate change because you don't see the affects of climate change from one winter to the other, hence if there are cold and warm winters in short time, it is very likely simply some strange weather variation.

[Vodmeister]

I find this hard to believe. Is creationism really on the rise within such a large population? Surely Republicans can't be that stupid?

[creature386]

I will search for the reasons for this because it is indeed strange that creationism is on the rise there. Mostly, it's the opposite case.

EDIT: Maybe I underestimated the influence of creationist movements:
religionandpolitics.org/2014/01/14/texas-textbooks-a-case-study-for-creationisms-staying-power/

[theropod]

What I meant to say was that the wheather is positively strange at the moment. It definitely doesnÂ’t disprove global warming.

[creature386]

I just saw this on topix today:
politix.topix.com/story/12331-obama-is-tackling-climate-change-more-than-any-other-president-and-hes-doing-it-alone

[creature386]

Republicans are not as terrible as I thought:
www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/12/republicans-carbon-limits_n_6313388.html

[0ldgrizz]

These are strange times when both religion and science have become a part of politics. Each party is expected to share the basic beliefs of that particular party.

[theropod]

Has religion ever really stopped being a part of politics?

I’m not sure about the US, altough as long as I can remember this has been the case, but historically, religion has been part of politics for a long time, if not since its beginnings.

Science is a different thing. I think it should definitely figure into politics, after all its results are politically relevant (for example whether children at school should be allowed to learn about evolution, and much more importantly, whether politicians should do something about climate change).