Christian Fundies and Evolution – how stupid do you have to be?

Intelligent design, creationism, magic, call it what you will, the christian fundamentalists are at it again (or more accurately:  still). The same folks that have finally admitted that the Earth revolves around the Sun ares till trying to convince folks that creationism is real science. And if they CAN’T convince people that their particular fantasy is real, they’ll do their best to legislate it into existence.

Turns out that there are STILL places where the Fundies swing enough political power to force schools to teach creationism instead of evolution. A few years ago the pope finally admitted that Galileo was right. I guess god has been really busy because it only took him 400 years to get the message to the pope (the pope does, after all, talk to god). That particular message must have gotten lost in all that other important stuff – like how to hide the fact that priests are regularly buggering their alter boys, while pontificating about the evils of homosexuality. Ya know, it takes a LOT of effort to keep that kind of hypocrisy under cover, and even god had his hands full keeping all those alter boys shut up. ( I could go on for pages, but its just too easy to find the many places that the fundies get it wrong, and then make idiots of themselves trying to cover it up or justify it, so back to evolution.)

So, anyway, it turns out that in March the Texas School Board approved a new set of “science ” standards that allows the fundies to teach that evolution simply can’t be real because (get this) it is too complex. Yep, after having been shot down in every rational venue they’ve tried, the fundies have fallen back on the “I can’t understand it, so it CAN’T be true”. Of course, the whole basis of christian fundamentalism is to simply accept what you’re told without any thought or reality checks, so I guess this shouldn’t be a surprise. After all, these folks just realized that the Earth isn’t the center of the universe. Of course, the fault doesn’t lie entirely with the fundies. The folks on the school board, those that elected them, and pretty much anyone that happens to live in the state of Texas holds some responsibility. Makes you wonder how Texas manages to survive – either the rational people have all fled, or they’re so scared of the fundies that they stay quiet. Course, when they’re competing with idiots like these, it probably also means that they’re rich enough to send their kids to private school (where they’ll get something that resembles an education), and let the fundies wallow in their ignorance. If this is allowed to continue, we have potential for a truly ironic situation: social evolution driving the fundies into extinction. Think about it. In today’s world, you need to be able to operate at SOME level of rationality. The fundies in Texas are forcing their schools to teach fantasy, so the smart families are going to send their kids to private school, leaving the fundies in the schools that teach the kids that ANYTHING they believe is real. After a while, those kids will grow up, and base their decisions on the stuff they learned in school. “Really, if I just pray hard enough, god will fix my hard drive” “god will find me a job” “Don’t worry Timmy, god told me it was OK, now just drop your pants and bend over”. Meanwhile, the rest of the world will be living in the 21st century, and the fundies will end up living in trailer parks waiting for the next tornado.

And they wonder why the rest of the world is laughing at them. Just god’s will, I guess.