Saturday, October 27, 2007

Bobby Jindal: Saving the Republican Party?

The Republicans haven't had much to cheer about lately, but now they have Bobby Jindal, new Governor of Louisiana. Some are touting Jindal as the future of the republican party. The fact that he is the son of Indian immigrants doesn't hurt any for countering the GOP's lily white reputation.

Unfortunately too much of Jindal's rhetoric is the same old evidence-averse nonsense pretending to be science. Yep, Jindal is an intelligent design advocate. Worse yet, he seems to have memorized and employed with malice of forethought, all the same deceptive language:

"The reality is there are a lot of things that we don’t understand. There’s no theory in science that could explain how, contrary to the laws of entropy, you could create order out of chaos. There’s no scientific theory that explains how you can create organic life out of inorganic matter. I think we owe it to our children to teach them the best possible modern scientific facts and theories. Teach them what different theories are out there for the things that aren’t answerable by science, that aren’t answered by science. Let them decide for themselves. I don’t think we should be scared to do that. Personally, it certainly makes sense to me that when you look at creation, you would believe in a creator. Let’s not be afraid to teach our kids the very best science."

This is all just code language for teaching creationism. This implies that Jindal is not one of the innocent believers deceived by the dissembling Behe and Dembski, but is in on the scam as well.

Is it too much to ask that the "party of reason" have candidates that accept basic science? I'm starting to wonder.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Teaching that there are certain religion-based views that are in in partial opposition to the realities of evolution does not make one a "creationist". Bobby Jindal, like many reasoned, science respecting conservatives, merely leave the door open to some sort of divine participation in the evolutionary process. If the far left has evidence that this is NOT the case, let's hear it. Of course, they don't. The conservative view, in this case, is the the view of openness and tolerance. Isn't that what the liberals are supposed to be about?

ScienceAvenger said...

Yes it does. Science-respecting people don't "leave the door open" in science to participation by nonfalsifiable entities, since that brings research to a screeching halt. Science, the subject here, is not about openness and tolerance, it's about evidence. I can't speak for those mythical "liberals" that conservatives invent as a boogeyman on which to blame everything and scare children, since I've never met one.

You've bought the scam.
This isn't about openness and tolerance. It's about sneaking religion into science classes. Jindal is just parroting the ID party line.