He's not a scientist, so how can we expect him to know that the entire universe wasn't created by a sentient entity called Yahweh in seven "days?" Can we even expect him to ask why we can see further than 6000 light years if it's only 6000 years old? No, he'd have to be a scientist, he says and even so, there are different theories, just as there are different theories about whether or not the Earth is flat and the universe, as it says in the bible, has water above and below it and there's a layer a few hundred feet 'above' us where magic creatures live.
You'd have to be a scientist, and even then you'd be baffled by all the 'theories' that abound which although solidly bolstered by irrefutable evidence and buttressed with repeatable observation are -- only theories.
“I’m not a scientist. I don’t think I’m qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says.”
I guess those would be parents of unsound mind or minds as lacking in scope and commitment to honesty as Marco's. Honesty? No, I'm not talking about the honesty that would require one to rank 'theories' according to their correspondence to the observation of nature, I'm talking about the dishonest assumption that parents are being prevented from telling their children that some god created us from a clot, a lump of clay or an ear of corn. A polite person would call it hyperbole. I would call it a lie. I would see it as a continuation of the Republican libel and the war against modernity and science.
The government has nothing to say about what you teach your kids, but it does have something to say about what I pay, what we pay to have them taught and face it, Rubio doesn't want them taught about 13 Mayan creator gods or Refafu, or Chuckwu or Osiris or Allah. He's simply trying to find support amongst the most ignorant, the deliberately stupid, the accidentally stupid and the demented. He's fishing for the Christian Creationists with fear as the bait. He's playing to the Christian Crusaders who want this to be a nation under God with an established religion.
There are signs that this brand of Christianism, this brand of Conservatism are weakening. Some see it in the entrails of this last election. There's evidence that blind belief is losing ground. That's what I want to believe, of course and that's why I'm not qualified to answer.
Capt. Fogg,
ReplyDeleteDoes a body really need to have a doctorate in a scientific field to show some confidence in basic modern science? I mean, would Rubio give the same answer to a question about gravity? Yes, it's remarkable what you can get these clowns to say when they want to curry favor.
Rubio said none of this matters with respect to Florida's financial problems, but really, with demented and dishonest leaders offering to fix it, it matters very much. If he can deny things so basic, if he can't tell the difference between superstition and science or fact from fallacy, I think it matters.
ReplyDeleteSadly there's every indication that this tea-prevert champion will be a big cheese in the "new" GOP.
If Rubio is pandering to fundies who take the seven-day creation story of Genesis literally, and count the generations from Abraham to Adam, he's already fairly afar of the mainstream. Catholics don't make a big deal about all of that shit, do they? That sounds more like something a Baptist minister would say not to hurt the feelings of creationists in his congregation. I'm sure there are religious conservatives the world over. I hear that Anglicans in the Southern states of the U.S. are among the worst. But these aren't significant voting blocs. I think he sees the writing on the wall and is worried about his job a senator. He's doing the losing strategy of shoring up the stupid white people vote. I don't see him as a rising star. By standing by Romney, he more or less killed any appeal he might have possibly had for any Latinos save the staunchest, most conservative, republican Cuban-Americans. He couldn't even deliver Florida for Romney, despite the sincere efforts of the republican leadership and Karl Rove. When he yelled out something in Spanish at the Tampa convention, I was just totally turned off.
ReplyDeleteOf course, Marco can't be held responsible for his brother-in-law moving vast quantities of cocaine and marijuana into Miami in the 1980s when he was just a kid, bribing the local police department, etc. But this article sheds some light on his growing distaste among Hispanic American voters and is a fun read for anybody that thinks he is a dick.
Oh, I'm one of them.
ReplyDeleteLiving in the special bubble here in the what has to be the most right wing county in Florida, it's harder to see him as outside the mainstream, but it's true about the Catholic church seeming liberal next to some more indigenous groups. I want to believe they're not significant voting blocs, but it ain't easy in a place where a third of my bills have religious messages on them.