In which we are treated to a schooling of MoFo GOODHAIR re: evolution by Richard DAWKINS

[UTUSN]

Not to mention a critique of our electoral process.


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http://gawker.com/5834921/richard-dawkins-gamely-takes-on-rick-perrys-evolution-denialism

Richard Dawkins Gamely Takes On Rick Perry’s Evolution Denialism

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/attention-governor-perry-evolution-is-a-fact/2011/08/23/gIQAuIFUYJ_blog.html

Attention Governor Perry: Evolution is a fact

All Posts by Richard Dawkins

There is nothing unusual about Governor Rick Perry. Uneducated fools can be found in every country and every period of history, and they are not unknown in high office. What is unusual about today’s Republican party (I disavow the ridiculous ‘GOP’ nickname, because the party of Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt has lately forfeited all claim to be considered ‘grand’) is this: In any other party and in any other country, an individual may occasionally rise to the top in spite of being an uneducated ignoramus. In today’s Republican Party ‘in spite of’ is not the phrase we need. Ignorance and lack of education are positive qualifications, bordering on obligatory. Intellect, knowledge and linguistic mastery are mistrusted by Republican voters, who, when choosing a president, would apparently prefer someone like themselves over someone actually qualified for the job.

Any other organization -- a big corporation, say, or a university, or a learned society - -when seeking a new leader, will go to immense trouble over the choice. The CVs of candidates and their portfolios of relevant experience are meticulously scrutinized, their publications are read by a learned committee, references are taken up and scrupulously discussed, the candidates are subjected to rigorous interviews and vetting procedures. Mistakes are still made, but not through lack of serious effort. ....

...There is surely something wrong with a system for choosing a leader when, given a pool of such talent and a process that occupies more than a year and consumes billions of dollars, what rises to the top of the heap is George W Bush. Or when the likes of Rick Perry or Michele Bachmann or Sarah Palin can be mentioned as even remote possibilities. ....

There are many reasons to vote against Rick Perry. His fatuous stance on the teaching of evolution in schools is perhaps not the first reason that springs to mind. But maybe it is the most telling litmus test of the other reasons, and it seems to apply not just to him but, lamentably, to all the likely contenders for the Republican nomination. The ‘evolution question’ deserves a prominent place in the list of questions put to candidates in interviews and public debates during the course of the coming election.

A politician’s attitude to evolution is perhaps not directly important in itself. It can have unfortunate consequences on education and science policy but, compared to Perry’s and the Tea Party’s pronouncements on other topics such as economics, taxation, history and sexual politics, their ignorance of evolutionary science might be overlooked. Except that a politician’s attitude to evolution, however peripheral it might seem, is a surprisingly apposite litmus test of more general inadequacy. This is because unlike, say, string theory where scientific opinion is genuinely divided, there is about the fact of evolution no doubt at all. ... ....



Richard Dawkins wrote this response to Governor Perry for On Faith, the Washington Post’s forum for news and opinion on religion and politics.


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1. Bwah-HAH, just learned from Wiki

that DAWKINS was born in KENYA and that his first name is CLINTON!1

If the wingnuts/TeaBaggers ever hear of DAWKINS and his critique of their ignorance, they will whine about the snooty Elites looking down on them, but the Kenya-Clinton angle will convince them that Creationism and Intelligent Design is thereby proved conclusively!1 There's something CLINTON in that Kenyan earth, air, and water!1



I also learned that he is who (coined?)/popularized the "meme" word.

[saras]

2. Some people just don't like democracy.

If you expect democracy to work, you can't TOLERATE stupidity. Merely DISAPPROVING of it is not sufficient. But if you're going to fill a country with stupid people, and you're going to let them vote, you can hardly complain about who and what they vote for.