During her bid for governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin argued that creationism should be discussed alongside evolution in public school science class. Later in the same debate, she pledged not to legislate creationism if she were elected governor.
Dan Joling of the Associated Press reports that Palin did not attempt to introduce creationism into public schools during her tenure as governor of Alaska.
It’s not clear whether Palin hoped kids would study Genesis and young earth creationism, or its more nebulous and politically correct counterpart, Intelligent Design (ID).
Palin’s church maintains that "the Bible [is] the only inspired inerrant Word of God authoritative for faith and practice." Genesis said the universe was created in seven days. If Palin believes that the story of Genesis is a literal historical record of the creation of life on earth, it’s hard to see how she could be anything but a young earth creationist.
Palin was an avowed young earth creationist in 1997, according to Philip Munger:
As the ceremony concluded, I bumped into her in a hall away from other people. I congratulated her on her victory, and took her aside to ask about her faith. Among other things, she declared that she was a young earth creationist, accepting both that the world was about 6,000-plus years old, and that humans and dinosaurs walked the earth at the same time. I asked how she felt about the second coming and the end times. She responded that she fully believed that the signs of Jesus returning soon "during MY lifetime," were obvious. "I can see that, maybe you can’t – but it guides me every day."
Munger reports that she later softened her stance to say that she "wasn’t necessarily" a young earth creationist anymore, but that her faith in the impending apocalypse remained undiminished.
Palin’s running mate, John McCain, claims to believe in evolution, but that didn’t stop him from delivering a 2007 keynote address to the Discovery Institute, a major ID lobby group.
When Palin is finally allowed to answer questions from the media, let’s see whether she’s still committed to a "hands off" policy when it comes to the science curriculum. Or, will she pander to the Republican base and embrace creationism in the schools wholeheartedly?
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Morning Lindsay,
“when”? I wonder “if”
we are lucky to have Munger, our ET, on the case.
Nothing like a reliable first hand account.
This shows the value of developing this New Media further. We need to get the point where we have “reporters” in all corners of America, and the world for that matter. Still have to grow our numbers here 10, 20, or times to really have an impact on Conglomerate Media though…Let’s get to work!
Picture people riding dinosaurs or using them to plow fields.
Sarah does.
When Fox News sends Geraldo out for a LIVE Special to unearth the remains of a Dinosaur wearing a primitive saddle, we will truly have devolved.
I guess Palin will be insisting that the word “Prehistoric” be removed from all educational materials then?
they have turned this into a discussion when none exists;
god created the light, I believe that, so do “creationists”, god created the light with the sun, I believe that, so do creationists
god created man, I believe that, I believe he did it through evolution, not only do I believe he did it with evolution, I believe he wants mankind to figure out how he did it
evolution and intelligent design are not mutually exclusive
even if they want to believe in “a young earth”, they have their cake and eat it too, simply by claiming “however the signs god left for us indicate the earth is as old as the solar system and gives us a differant timeline”
it’s a non starter, even the pope says creationsism and evolution do not contradict themselves
but
uggg
Granholm is going to play Palin in Biden’s debate prep.
http://tpmelectioncentral.talk…..nd_157.php
When Palin
isfinallyalloweddeigns to answer questions from themediaDisney fluffer Charlie Gibson…adjusted, just a tad….
They act like it should be taught because there’s such a demand in the public for it. Of course, they ignore the tens of millions of dollars spent on PR campaigns and programs, and the incredible amounts on lobbying in DeeCee, state, and local governments to create the illusion of demand.
They are trying to force “creationism” down the throats of the electorate. It’s hardly a grassroots movement from we the people.
HOLY CRAP!!!
Creationist Paleontologists Discover Dinosaur Saddle
Posted by admin on 2005/10/10 12:54:43 (59177 reads)
By Ion Zwitter, Avant News Editor
Mud Flaps, Arizona, March 29, 2006
BWWWAAAAAHHHHHHAAAAAHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sarah? Is that you?
http://images.google.com/image…..038;tab=wi
So Ron Paul is going to “somewhat endorse” someone today. I’m guessin Bob Barr. But if it’s McInsane, it’ll be frontpage/top story for the next day or two, even though BigMedia essentially ignored the fact that his counter-convention nearly outdrew the RNC convention.
If it’s anyone else, including Obama, they’ll ignore it. Watch for it.
Link to Dinosaur saddle discovery story is here:
http://www.avantnews.com/modul…..toryid=126
Sorry Geraldo!
I pretty much agree with you, but may I edit?
I believe
he wantsmankind is to figure out howhe did itit happened.I try to stay away from gender specific language when I think or speak of the divine.
Plus…here’s another thought. Taking the word of a pastor is easier than taking a lot of difficult Science classes that make you actually have to think, ponder, and learn. Ha.
If I remember the quotes correctly, she’s a ”teach the controversy” creationist, only of course there is no controversy.
This belief has always mystified me. The Bible is clearly NOT the “Word of God”. If you want proof, you should read, well, the Bible. The Gospel According to Saint Matthew is the word of Saint Matthew. The Gospel According to Saint Mark is the word of Saint Mark. Paul’s Letter to the Romans is the word of Paul. And so on.
Furthermore, the Bible has clearly…um…evolved over the past several centuries. For starters, it has been translated from it’s original language, and there are a number of different English translations currently in use (the King James Version being the popular favorite). Part of it have been simply dropped by some religious denominations. Is each one the “inerrant Word of God”? If so, why are there different translations?
If you’re looking for a book that really claims to be “the inspired inerrant Word of God”, the Bible doesn’t even come close. What you’re looking for is, in fact, the Koran. That’s a book that DOES claim to be the “inspired inerrant Word of God”, and it’s still in the language (Arabic) that God dictated it in via his Prophet, Mohammed. For this reason, translations of the Koran are called “translations” of the book rather than English “versions”, since the process of translation has, by definition, altered “the inspired Inerrant Word of God”.
This is both bad religion and bad history. I’ve never understood why people buy into it. If you want to study the Bible, then by all means, study it. But please try to have at least a cursory understanding of what it really says.
Sarah? Is that you?
She’s gonna make a killing on E-Bay on this one….
what will her position be? lets see if it’s close to Bush’s whatvere that is. that’d be one more argument that these people will be a bush 3rd term
me agrees but I am a man after all, I like to associate…will guard against that in the future
OT: Today is 9/11/08, the seventh anniversary of 9/11/01, the day that fundamentalists from an Abrahamic religion, believing that they were on a mission from God, launched a devastating attack against this nation. This event should underscore the dangers posed by such people.
his is bush:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/…..01686.html
I don’t see her being far from that — if she ever gets to tell us. More of the same. we need real change. si, se puede.
I have no problem teaching creationism in a religious history class
I only have a problem teaching magic in a science class, their magic says the following;
“anything we don’t want to figure out or can’t was done by a grand wizard”
they want to teach my kids their magic as if it’s science, I wouldn’t mind if they taught it in a social history class as it examines differant beliefs
well put
people, being people, i’m sure raced them and bet on them. and had them fight each other. and bet on that too. i’m sure of it. god told me.
HA!
And the joke about calling the Repube ticket Paleo/Palin takes on a whole new meaning.
Oops, that was supposed to read “tomorrow” rather than “today.”
i think i have a problem with it in public elementary schools at all. high schools too, probably, because high school kids are stupid. at home? knock yourself out. that’s what parents do.
Wasn’t trying to preach. Just something I started in my head in my early 20’s and was studying comparative religions. I wanted to get the anthropormorphized God out of my brain. That was just my personal choice.
Yay for Choice!!!
Mrs. Palin is gonna be in Virginia today, in support of some relatively unknown geriatric dude.
How many days in a row does this make that she’s
lied, er,mis-spoken– oh, fuck it – *lied* about her imminent return to Alaska (to take care of “family” matters) (that she obviously doesn’t really give a shit about?)Here is one of the beautiful stained glass windows from Sarah’s church in Alaska:
http://www.sirlin.net/wordpres…..nosaur.JPG
Holy Crap!
Well, there IS a controversy, but it should be taught in classes about religion and history as opposed to classes about science.
As you pointed out, “teaching the controversy” is a very carefully planned phrase that’s part of the larger PR strategy to insert their beliefs into everyone else’s life.
The nuns in my Catholic school did it even easier and better: they simply said that we humans do not know what God’s day is, because it is likely not the same as the 24 hour period that we consider a day. They noted that God’s “day” could mean a thousand years, ten thousand years, or a million years.
Palin Biography coming
Awesome, that.
I noticed the comments griping about her finding a new mayor for detroit. Eh, the interim guy’s already in place. She can take a few days and do this, without hurting that much at all. Much less her constant quest around the world to bring more jobs to this state. Especially green energy related ones. (and she’s done a damned fine job of that, even if it’s barely a trickle compared to the jobs the Big Three keep hacking off.)
I kept thinking it must have just been me. I figured I just needed more coffee.
Boy, the put that together PDQ.
I can’t figure out why Obama’s campaign is not referring to Palin as the “not ready for prime time player,” since they are not ready to bring her out in public to answer real questions. I hope the press is preparing to give her a battery of really hard questions, since they’ve been cut out of interviews for, what is it now, two weeks?
C’mon, fer chrissake, stop with the endless drivel about Palin, wouldja? She’s a Trojan horse.
The economy? The war?? Healthcare??? Hellooooo?
Josh Marshall, normally pretty even keeled in the face of political bizarrities, put out a heartfelt essay this morning.
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/215224.php
Teach “intelligent design” in mythology courses, where it belongs. When Americans begin to believe that myth is reality you can bet the farm that the rest of the world will leave the U.S. in the dust.
GREAT POST Lindsay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Monday though Saturday Palin listens to seismologists, who determine where to drill for oil based on the world being around 4.5 billion years old.
On Sundays Palin listens to a preacher who tells her the earth is six thousand years old.
She apparently doesn’t see the problem.
an it will surely be hard hitting /s
So her daughter had a severe case of mono, during which she had sex and was banished from the house, moved in with her aunt, pregnant, with mono, as a sign of her parents unconditional love?
Tough Fundamentalist Love, eh?
yeah! i remember that now. in all my years in catholic schools (16) it was never, ever so much as suggested that evolution was wrong or was somehow inconsistent with god creating the earth. these people are loonies.
OT
CSPAN 3 has Armed Services Committee
video link real player
707!! I think I hurt myself.
Jane’s upstairs
McCain Cheats His Own Public Financing Laws — Again
Riiiight…I’d like to see how they envision placing any saddle on a stegosaurus. Seriously, I want to see a diagram how that would work.
As for the Velociraptor being suited to be saddled up, I’d like to see how THAT would work too.
I daresay these folks grew up watching the kids TV series “Land of the Lost” and took it as gospel, so to speak.
A girly man riding side-saddle no less.
digg
They can teach creationism alongside science when they also agree that they must teach some Native American version of it, as well as the Hindu version, etc. I also expect to see the teaching that the earth is the center of the solar system (and, indeed, the universe) alongside heliocentrism.
Astrology must be given equal time with astronomy AND psychology. Alchemy must be given equal coverage vs actual chemistry.
An interesting exchange from last night’s Late Late thread:
The cited article was an attack on Sarah Palin based on anonymous sources, which the author later defended here.
FWIW, given my great respect for and faith in Philip “EdwardTeller” Munger, I’m taking this as a cautionary tale not to believe every written attack on Palin.
I’m working on my Sarah Palin Biography right now. I’m up to Chapter Forty-nine.
Unless somebody has managed to ask Sarah Palin about her current views on creationism during the past two weeks, the only post-Kitzwiller vs Dover Area School District discussion on teaching of evoution in schools discussion she has had, to my knowledge, was this one:
During late October, 2006, during her run for Governor of Alaska, I had the chance to call in to Dan Fagan’s afternoon AM Radio call-in program on Anchorage’s KFQD-AM radio. I asked her two questions, or sets of questions. The first was, “If you are elected governor, will Dr. Jerry Prevo have special access to your office?” Prevo is the most powerful Southern Baptist mnister in Alaska. He presides over the closest thing to a mega-church in Mid-town Anchorage. He has been an insidious force in Alaska politics over the years.
She answered along the lines, “Jerry Prevo will be treated with the same respect I will give any other clergy in Alaska.”
I then asked if she was aware of the recent court decision in Delaware, regarding the teaching of intelligent design, or creationism lite, in public schools. She said she wasn’t. I explained it briefly. She said she would have to look it up and read about it. She knew who I was, so she could have called me for more information, had she chosen.
Later in October, she was on TV and radio debates with Knowles and Halcro, in which she used her “teach both sides of the question” stock response over and over.
Since she has been governor, she has not brought any of this up, to the best of my knowledge.
I discussed Palin and creationism, and Palin and science, at length on Monday, with LA Times Washington Bureau reporter, Steve Brown. His story comes out September 11.
I’d recommend playing the fear card; I don’t want anybody who looks forward to the end of days in their own life time and believes that the war in Iraq is a mission from God to be anywhere near control of nuclear weapons. The mere thought of it scares the shit out of me.
Your mention of the Koran is more right on than you know. Christian belief in the inerrancy of the Bible began as part of a broader reaction to Islam. The omnipotentence of God, His providential running of the minutest aspects of daily life, and the whole idea of Christendom are other ideas that really came to the fore in Christian theology during the confrontation with Islamic expansionism. Jacques Ellul wrote a book about it appropriately called ‘The Subversion of Christianity’.
Her Beliefs are her guide, not rational thought.
Even in the face of factual evidence to the contrary – Billions and Billions of years in the Archaeological Record – containing clear and unmistakable Factual Evidence of continuous, rationally discernible development – her Beliefs trump all of that.
How does she know the Earth is 6,000 years old? Well, if you take the Bible and start with Adam and Eve, corresponding to God’s Creation of the World, and then follow the listing of the generations of families, you get roughly 6,000 years of elapsed history to the present day.
Therefore, since the Bible is the Unerring Literal Truth for Sarah, that means the Earth and All of Creation is 6,000 years old.
She’s potentially one heartbeat away from the Nuclear Football, and she’s Certain these are the End Times, too.
Would Sarah send Our Troops to fight in a Religious War?
Her Beliefs trump reason and logic.
Beliefs are All that Sarah has – she has No Substance, No Rational Processes, and Worst of All No Character – She’ll say anything to Stealthily Advance her Religious Narrative.
Because it’s All She Has.
This is where I differ with Obama. He says that Palin “is clearly a deeply Religious person, and that’s good” but he fails to make the distinction that she’s Only Religious, and in an Extremist, Incredibly Hypocritical Way.
Sarah – “To tell the truth, I haven’t thought much about the Iraq War.”
Sarah – “The Iraq War is a tasking from God.”
Undoubtedly, she’ll soon say that she’s not a young earth creationist – and she’ll believe it with all her heart when she looks into the camera and delivers her line with deep conviction – but she won’t be able to articulate a non-Magical Thinking worldview, because that’s not who she is. All she’s Got is a lifetime of Magical Thinking, derived from her Beliefs about the Bible.
Like a 6,000 year old Universe.
And a Mission, in accordance with God’s Plan, for All of US.
Wake Up, America!
Morning, everyone.
Okay, Palin is a Trojan Horse. You know who’s inside that mysterious wooden contraption: the rapture right. People who believe that the world is going to end any day now, probably through some combustible mix of nukes and the Temple Mount.
Morning,
Drudge is still running “Lipstick” headers, seven hours after the National Enquirer began running their Palin family blockbuster tease. No mention in the Alaska media yet, either.
When the Edwards affair stuff ran in the Enquirer, Drudge had it up within MINUTES…
Increasingly children are being recruited into this culture war against Science. Kids are told to ask “teach the controversy” questions of the teachers…often when the child doesn’t even know what the question is about.
Sadly it’s getting to where High School Biology teachers need to take special courses in “Evolutionary Answers to Creationist Nonsense” in order to be prepared to teach their classes and deal with the distortions.
And the agenda of the Intelligent Design people goes far beyond the criticism of Biology. They actually want to transform the whole curriculum…they want the teaching of History to include prophetic and “destiny” elements. Y’know…the same stuff that Palin is telling her church that justifies the Iraq War…that it’s a god-directed set of events. They want to teach that leaders are placed into office because of some “Godly plan” (so don’t resist when a Republican gets into power…only resisting a Satanic Muslim is valid)…”the divine right of kings”. They want to place the Constitution and the Nations legal structure under a religious mantle…rather than a secularly derived one.
This was all laid out in the DI’s “Wedge” document. And one key aspect of the “Wedge” is using covert “stealth” candidates to move into key political positions to advance the agenda.
Actually, there have been books about this since the mid-90s, training sessions on how educators, curriculum committee members and school board members can answer these superstitious people since the late 80s.
Fighting creationism is an evolutionary process. Knowledge vs blind faith. We usually win on a level playing field…
Huge flocks of geese and cranes and swans flying over our house in the outskirts of Wasilla Alaska, headed your way, folks.
goitta get ready for work…
I’m sure there’s a correction farther down but…today is 9/10, my parents 70th wedding anniversary. You skipped a day.