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Re: [Phys-l] "To put it simply, no Darwin, no Hitler, " said the group's late founder, D. James Kennedy.



Did anyone hear the PBS program *Radio Times*, March 28, which featured the interview with Susan Jacoby, author of "The Age of American Unreason."? In the book and during the interview she talked (wrote) about the anti-intellectual bias in this country.
More people can rattle off the personal lives of dozens of sports stars and Hollywood celebrities than can name any American scientist with the possible exception of Einstein and Sagan. The word *Intellectual* is associated with muddle-headed academics out of touch with the lives of so-called real people. *Scientist* is a four-letter word to some people and brings up a picture of some guy with horn- rimmed glasses, duct taped in the nosepiece, hair askew, wearing a baggy white lab coat and pens sticking out of his pocket. To a lot of the nit-wits on the *right*, mere mention of Harvard conjures up a long-haired hippie, liberal, professor spouting anti-American slogans while sipping French red wine and eating sushi. I think it was John Stewart who joked about this on the Daily Show the other night when he said "only" one out of five people think the sun revolved around the earth... ("well, wait a minute, doesn't it?") .
More people believe in UFO than in evolution, and over 50% of those surveyed couldn't find Iraq on a map. When asked who didn't believe in evolution, during a debate, several former Republican candidates for President raised their hands.
Many years ago the National Geographic magazine, in an article about the State of Delaware, pointed out that a large percentage of people thought Delaware was in New England. To this day how many *educated* people still don't know that Hawaii is a State? How many people can name more than two or three Supreme Court Justices? For that matter, if you say the word *Supremes* I bet a majority of people would say *Diana Ross* before thinking of any of the Justices.
No, my friends, it should come as no surprise that this hair-brained politician should spout his ignorance to the good citizens of Florida. In fact, it should be no surprise that many of the good citizens of Florida probably believe every word he says!

Marty



On Mar 31, 2008, at 8:08 PM, Bernard Cleyet wrote:

Not the Unitarians!

bc as far as he'll go.


On 2008, Mar 31, , at 15:29, Alfredo Louro wrote:

Isn't it the case that various religious groups consider themselves to
be "the chosen people"? Slippery slope, indeed.

On Sat, Mar 29, 2008 at 7:07 PM, Bernard Cleyet
<bernardcleyet@redshift.com> wrote:


LEADING CANDIDATE FOR FLORIDA MAYOR THINKS EVOLUTION IS NAZI IDEA
[Not a correct headline.]

ST PETERSBURG TIMES - Darwin's theory of evolution helped fuel the
rise of Hitler and contributed to the school-shooting massacre at
Columbine, a former St. Petersburg City Council member wrote in a
letter urging the Pinellas County School Board to expose students to
alternative theories.

"Evolution gives our kids an excuse to believe in natural selection
and survival of the fittest, which leads to a belief that they are
superior over the weak," Bill Foster wrote board members in a letter
received this week. "This is a slippery slope."

He continued: "One of the Columbine shooters wrote on his Web site,
'You know what I love? Natural selection! It's the best thing that
ever happened to the Earth. Getting rid of all the stupid and weak
organisms.'"

Foster, who recently stepped down after being term-limited from
office, is widely considered to be a leading contender to be St.
Petersburg's next mayor in 2009. He said Friday he wrote the letter,
which appears on his law firm's stationery, as the concerned parent
of a high school student. . .

Foster isn't the first Darwin critic to attempt to link evolutionary
theory to violence and racism, but he is the first public figure in
the Florida debate to do so.

cut

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