I mean, sure, it's Georgia, but still. The state's tenth district's Representative Paul Broun is a prime example of what the title is talking about. There are a frightening number of federal politicians in the US, many of them with considerable power and influence and most commonly found in the House, who appear to be right out of the Dark Ages with the way they speak, act, and vote. Last month, Broun said at the Liberty Baptist Church Sportsman's Banquet in his home state that the theories of evolution and the big bang as well as the science of embryology are "lies straight from the pit of Hell." Most people probably expect an anti-scientific sentiment from the Bible Belt, even from its politicians, but Broun's statement, to the cheers of his reality-challenged audience, are easily comparable to what you would expect to hear from the people in power from the medieval times.1 Why, in 21st century America, are well electing politicians who believe that one of biology's strongest theories, one of cosmology's strongest theories, and a whole field of science are Satan-inspired fabrications?
As alarmingly misguided as Congressman Broun is, he still has the right to run for public office and so a lot of the blame for his regular admittance to the House chamber is on his constituency. As advanced as the US is in many areas of society and technology, Broun's repeated reelections unfortunately show that part of the American public is stuck in a woefully medieval mindset that condemns anything that contradicts a fundamentalist view of their religion. The Roman Inquisition would have felt the same way about Galileo and Copernicus' support for heliocentrism.
Broun went on to falsely describe himself as a scientist, state his belief of a 9000 year old Earth that "was created in six days as we know them," and affirm his conviction that the Bible "teaches us how to run all of public policy and everything in society." Wanting to follow some of the tenets of one's religion is one thing, but to actually eschew mountains of scientific data that show the planet is half a million times older than a shoddy archaic estimate is beyond the scope of reasonable public servant qualifications. Many people would be rightfully concerned if a member of Congress vowed to try to help steer the federal government in a direction wholly dictated by the Bible,2 in direct contradiction to the Constitution's Establishment Clause, but obviously there are enough people in Georgia's tenth who agree with these incredibly ignorant convictions to elect people like Broun to probably the most powerful legislative body in the world.
What kind of country can function reasonably in modern society if all its politicians were to not only eschew basic science, but tell the public it is all a lie from Hell? What kind of moral person would want to live in a country run by a book that, if followed as closely as Broun implies, would perpetrate a whole host of human rights violations on its own citizens? There is no way for any nation to progress in any form if statements as appallingly ignorant as Broun's are allowed considerable influence on its direction; everything from science to civil rights will gradually erode until society conforms to an incredibly narrow point of view that is intellectually (and ethically) on par with some of the most backward nations of today. Fortunately, there are not enough of these politicians to considerably degrade the progress we've made over the last few centuries and my hope is that beliefs such as evolution being a Satanic falsehood and the Earth being 9000 years old will eventually disappear as the public more fully embraces reality.
As long as various pockets of the country continue to deny perfectly sound fields of science and believe in the most archaic (and silly) of scriptural notions then we will continue to have these medieval-minded politicians exert their misguided and reality-challenged beliefs on our society. In this day and age and in this society, this is very sad (and scary) indeed.
1 Especially concerning is that someone as amazingly ignorant as Paul Broun is on the House Committee of Science, Space, and Technology. Yes, the House Committee that addresses science has someone on it who actively denies some basic tenets of biology and cosmology.
2 Much of which, as acknowledged by many a devout Christian, explicitly promotes practices that would be considered appalling in modern, civilized society.
As alarmingly misguided as Congressman Broun is, he still has the right to run for public office and so a lot of the blame for his regular admittance to the House chamber is on his constituency. As advanced as the US is in many areas of society and technology, Broun's repeated reelections unfortunately show that part of the American public is stuck in a woefully medieval mindset that condemns anything that contradicts a fundamentalist view of their religion. The Roman Inquisition would have felt the same way about Galileo and Copernicus' support for heliocentrism.
Broun went on to falsely describe himself as a scientist, state his belief of a 9000 year old Earth that "was created in six days as we know them," and affirm his conviction that the Bible "teaches us how to run all of public policy and everything in society." Wanting to follow some of the tenets of one's religion is one thing, but to actually eschew mountains of scientific data that show the planet is half a million times older than a shoddy archaic estimate is beyond the scope of reasonable public servant qualifications. Many people would be rightfully concerned if a member of Congress vowed to try to help steer the federal government in a direction wholly dictated by the Bible,2 in direct contradiction to the Constitution's Establishment Clause, but obviously there are enough people in Georgia's tenth who agree with these incredibly ignorant convictions to elect people like Broun to probably the most powerful legislative body in the world.
What kind of country can function reasonably in modern society if all its politicians were to not only eschew basic science, but tell the public it is all a lie from Hell? What kind of moral person would want to live in a country run by a book that, if followed as closely as Broun implies, would perpetrate a whole host of human rights violations on its own citizens? There is no way for any nation to progress in any form if statements as appallingly ignorant as Broun's are allowed considerable influence on its direction; everything from science to civil rights will gradually erode until society conforms to an incredibly narrow point of view that is intellectually (and ethically) on par with some of the most backward nations of today. Fortunately, there are not enough of these politicians to considerably degrade the progress we've made over the last few centuries and my hope is that beliefs such as evolution being a Satanic falsehood and the Earth being 9000 years old will eventually disappear as the public more fully embraces reality.
As long as various pockets of the country continue to deny perfectly sound fields of science and believe in the most archaic (and silly) of scriptural notions then we will continue to have these medieval-minded politicians exert their misguided and reality-challenged beliefs on our society. In this day and age and in this society, this is very sad (and scary) indeed.
1 Especially concerning is that someone as amazingly ignorant as Paul Broun is on the House Committee of Science, Space, and Technology. Yes, the House Committee that addresses science has someone on it who actively denies some basic tenets of biology and cosmology.
2 Much of which, as acknowledged by many a devout Christian, explicitly promotes practices that would be considered appalling in modern, civilized society.
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