Last month, during a Republican presidential debate, candidates were asked to raise their hands if they didn't believe in evolution. Sam Brownback of Kansas was one of three candidates to do so.Today, he tries to explain why he did so in the New York Times. Here's the column.
Read the column closely. There is much to agree with in this piece -- of course faith and reason can co-exist, and of course they are not mutually exclusive -- but this is not the point.
Look carefully at the way the Senator splits hairs in narrowly defining "evolution" as a way of explaining why he raised his hand in that split second.
The essay provides a window into his soul for how he can twist a simple question and turn it into different questions that miss the big picture. And because we are not a theocracy -- yet -- I think his emphasis on "faith" is a little scary for people who may practice a different faith than he does.
Anybody out there think Sen. Brownback would prefer a theocracy? Please raise your hand if you do.
3 comments:
OMG, they are all such whack-jobs its really troublesome. Yikes.
Fun blog btw. stop by and say hi sometime.
www.rickrockhill.blogspot.com
Senator Brownback may have made a monkey of himself during the Republican debate, but I don't see the problem with his NYT essay. The idea that evolution happens and God is real too is not so hard to grasp. It's a concept managed easily by millions of average people who run neither presidential campaigns nor weblogs about them. As for the people who continue to deny evolution despite the overwhelming evidence for it, they are at best, grossly ignorant, and very possibly total whack-jobs. And yet, these folks scare me less than those who offer only a knee-jerk condemnation of anything that smacks of religious belief. To deny the existance of something just because it cannot be readily seen and understood defies not only faith, but reason as well.
I was disappointed to see my favorite of the candidates, Governor Mike Huckabee, also raise his hand. In the end, however, he had a sounder perspective on the issue than most others: "I'm not sure what in the world that has to do with being President."
Did you know that you can create short links with Shortest and make dollars from every visitor to your short urls.
Post a Comment