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CREATIONISM

Darwin Gets 4,000 Votes in Creationist's District

Campaign against Rep. Paul Broun, who says earth is 9,000 years old

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

Image: Politix

Charles Darwin, the pioneer of evolutionary theory, received almost 4,000 write-in votes in Athens-Clark County, Georgia - despite being British and dead since 1882.

Darwin's surprise popularity evolved out of a campaign against Rep. Paul Broun, who was filmed earlier this year in a deer-head-filled hall explaining that the earth is 9,000 years old, and evolution is a lie "from the pit of hell."

Broun received 16,980 votes in Clark County - only four times as many as the long-dead evolutionist. The local press is now investigating the vote tally for Darwin in the other counties comprising Broun's district.

Via Online Athens.
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What's your take on the Darwin write-in campaign - funny or fail?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • u
    cloreen
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    @Denizen_Kate
    I know. I try to laugh about it, but it's really infuriating that it's come to this. Hopefully it has helped light a fire under people to make them politically active (and let's hope it's embarrassing enough to their constituents that it creates political change).
  • PNWest
    !
    Everyone knows God loves America. The GOP tells us that all the time. God specifically told at 3 of the wackiest GOP candidates to run (Perry, Bachmann, Santorum) and at the least told Romney it was OK to run (Romney prayed about it before running). An act of God (Hurricane Issac) cancelled the first night of the RNC then the week before the election the almighty sent another hurricane over the east coast which the GOP is now blaming for their defeat. Given all this evidence isn't it quite obvious that God must be a democrat?
  • Dotjones
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    @PNWest He is, God told me to vote for someone who had the betterment of the American public at heart. So I did, and he won.
  • Fishbone345
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    @PNWest That's pretty damn funny PNWest. I was wondering what all the Jebus freaks were thinking about the "Gods chosen" candidates that lost. Must be earth shattering to realize that Man has more control over politics than their God. I guess their idea of the End Game gives them comfort at night in these very scary times.
  • jpena16
    !
    @PNWest you would think that after God sent not one but two hurricanes to screw directly with Romney's reelection that the religious yahoos would get the message. Generally lightning doesn't strike twice and I suspect neither do hurricanes. I mean if it's God's intention when a woman gets raped for a woman to conceive and give birth to the rapists baby, wouldn't it follow to conclude that when a hurricane first hits the Republican convention and delays it for a day, and right after that hits again days before the election ,and afterwards you hear from the mouths of the Republicans that they lost the race as a direct result of Sandy the Hurricane, that God is not happy with your agenda and is doing everything possible to end it for Republicans ? If I was a Republican right now I would beg God for forgiveness and promise to change my ways before next time it's not high winds and flooding but fire and brimstone instead. But who knows, maybe they are ignoring the warnings because who they really are loyal to is that Lord of the Flies down below where they feel right at home with fire and brimstone.
  • u
    booboo8706
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    I wouldn't find it foolish if the people didn't like any of the other candidates, if there would have been other candidates. In that case I think its a good way to show the candidate that a part of his/her constituency does not agree with those beliefs and that any passage of bills in direct favor of the belief is a complete disregard of a segment of the people he/she has been elected to represent.
  • Russell797
    !
    That we are still waging an intellectual war over biological evolution in this country speaks volumes as to our level of "composite intelligence". Not that it is significantly different anywhere else either. As a species are we really all that smart? A little intelligence can be a very dangerous thing! Our impulses/behaviors are still mostly compelled by the brain's limbic system. Our "intelligent" brains (cortex) then acts on those impulses....logic be damned.
  • Zazziness
    !
    Horrifying. Young Earth Creationists have to ignore almost the entirety of science to think this planet is only 6,000 years old. The Theory of Evolution is just one small part of the rational thinking they discard in favor of obvious fallacy. And it's so unnecessary. The vast majority of Christians have no problem reconciling faith and science. It's only the Bible-literalists who want to make God so tiny they can squeeze Him into a book. A shame, really.
  • Dan_Tien
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    I think that it is sad that nobody was even running against Broun. Anyone who believes in creation "science" first needs to prove scientifically that God exists and the Bible is true. It can't be done. You are all welcome to your beliefs, just don't try to get elected so that you can suppress the advance of legitimate scientific research and teaching in favor of scientifically insupportable traditions.
  • u
    Jasonopolis
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    I would say that the theory of evolution has equal - if not greater - onus to prove itself before being taught in schools as fact. Where are the fossil records of the creatures between ape and man for example? Or between gilled animals and lunged? Or between land-based and flighted animals?
    It is unbelievable the number of lemmings running with unproven science.
  • Dan_Tien
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    @Jasonopolis The theory of evolution is taught as just that... a theory. But it is a theory with a great deal of supporting evidence. The fossil record is not a library where you go for research. It is hit or miss finding fossils, and fossils themselves are a product of random chance. You want evidence of a link between gilled animals and lunged? Amphibians have both. Archeopteryx is a fossil record of a feathered dinosaur. There are still feathered animals who can't fly. Unproven theories are indispensable to mathematics. Some things cannot be proven, and never will be. It doesn't mean they do not have practical uses though. It always strikes me as ironic that people who believe in unprovable things like God, Satan, angels and demons will state that there is no proof of scientifically observable phenomena. It can only because accepting things that call your beliefs into question is too frightening to consider.
  • u
    Jasonopolis
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    @Dan_Tien There are fossil records of every other living creature that exists anywhere on the planet that they have ever historically inhabited; from gnats to dinosaurs. Yet mysteriously we cannot find conclusive examples of all of the millions of species that would have been required to have existed for millions of years to represent the transition just between ape and man, let alone all other transitional beings. When I hear people completely cast aside any reasonable belief that there actually might just be a God who created all of this - as even a possibility - I shake my head in disbelief.
    I have considered all paths with an open mind, and am open mind I maintain. I get a little unnerved by both extremes, honestly,- those that completely refute any existence of evolution and those who deny any possibility of God or creation.
  • Dan_Tien
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    @Jasonopolis "There are fossil records of every other living creature that exists anywhere on the planet that they have ever historically inhabited". This is a totally illogical and insupportable statement. If no fossil had ever been found of a creature that had existed, no one would know that it it existed. There have been many fossils of creatures that appear to be somewhere between apes and humans. Australopithecus is one. If you read my post more carefully, you will see that I did not deny the existence of God. I merely said that the existence of God cannot be proven. If you can prove the existence of God (without pointing at the Bible as "proof") then you will be the first. "I have considered all paths with an open mind". I doubt that, since you already have said that you shake your head in disbelief at the thought that God does not exist. You may be more tolerant of ideas that conflict with your beliefs than some people, but is that the same as "open-minded"? To me, open-mindedness includes the ability to accept that everything you "know" is wrong.
  • u
    MIDutch
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    Creationism has been dead for over 200 years. It was actually Christian scientists, clergy and lay people of Northern Europe looking FOR scientific evidence of the Biblical creation of the world and the Noachian flood (Neptunism) that discovered that no such thing existed. In point of fact, the literal and inerrant "truth" of Genesis was already in serious doubt before Darwin ever came on the scene. That American politicians here in the US, in the 21st century, still adhere to a quaint and antiquated fable speaks volumes about how powerful the creationist delusion is. That someone believes that the Cosmos and Earth are only 7500 years old SHOULD disqualify them from holding public office, let alone hold a seat on a SCIENCE subcommittee.
  • jpena16
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    For those that are interested here is a peek at Darwins religious views. Some might be interested to hear that, ironically, Charles Darwin originally studied to be clergy and also the natural theology of William Paley which presented the argument from divine design in nature to explain adaptation as God acting through laws of nature. the natural theology of William Paley which presented the argument from divine design in nature to explain adaptation as God acting through laws of nature.This point of view gradually changed as he acquired more evidence of evolution. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_...
  • u
    Jasonopolis
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    Dead for over 200 years? My friend the theory of evolution is based on less than 200 year old abstractions that have not even come close to having been proven. The fact that it is taught in schools as fact is the most mind-boggling event in modern human understanding.
  • u
    MIDutch
    !
    @Jasonopolis sorry, the opinions of a (global) minority who adhere to a "literal and inerrant" interpretation of a particular religious work, does NOT invalidate the current scientific understanding of biological evolution accepted by the VAST majority of the world's scientists and population. There is a VAST amount of logic, reason, research and empirical evidence for evolution. BILLIONS of bits of information, data and empirical evidence, collected over the past 200 years, studied and researched by TENS OF MILLIONS of scientists and technicians and students, from EVERY scientific discipline, form EVERY religious denomination, in TENS OF THOUSANDS of museums, universities, research laboratories, excavation sites, observatories, research hospitals, etc. all around the world. It really doesn't matter that you don't like it. Evolution IS a fact and the Theory of Evolution is the best explanation of that fact. That is why they teach it in science classrooms around the world and NOT the "the world is only 6000 years old, the first man was conjured up out of a pile of dirt, magic fruit that makes an eater immortal, talking snake science" that so many people here in the USofA believe in.
  • u
    doodlebugger
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    A dead genius got 25% of the vote over a live idiot. Incredibly, the flat earthers re-elected the idiot. Write your congressman and have this guy Broun expelled from the science committee. I'm ashamed of Congress for not already doing that.
  • kirbstomp1
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    @jpena16 - I know I've emailed him and asked him how he's a doctor and doesn't believe what's in front of his face, he's a disfrave to what represents me.
  • TheBigSmuz
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    It's both funny and fitting that the least coherent post on this thread is the one claiming that Darwin is in Hell and that God created/controls the Earth. Also, Darwin pioneered the Theory of EVOLUTION, not elevation - he was a scientist, not a cartographer. lol
  • kirbstomp1
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    @TheBigSmuz - very very fitting. Someone didn't pay attention to science or literature in grade school BC im positive after this statement smuz didn't attend a university.
  • u
    Faceman
    !
    @TheBigSmuz regardless if you dont beleive in god you will go to hell pain and simple and evalution in my book and more than scientist ever thought about beleive in the same way if you think god doesnt exist thats your business but i plain on going to heaven with the rest of my family.it seems to me most atheist was raised in a very poor parental home and the reason they have no faith is because they will never taught right
  • View all 34 replies >
  • u
    BryJan
    !
    Well it is Funny that people that believe in Evolution have the same ideology as Hitler.. Why would anyone follow after theories that people like Hitler and Communism thrive on.
  • u
    MIDutch
    !
    Hitler was a Christian. All you have to do is read his books, speeches, sermons, etc. to know that. You will note that he constantly and consistently claimed he was doing God's work while terrorizing the world, NOT Darwin's work. Further, communism is an economic system and has NOTHING to do with the Theory of Evolution. The VAST majority of the world's capitalistic societies fully accept the scientific validity of the Theory of Evolution as well, but I suspect your religiously dogmatic ideology won't allow you to see that.
  • John_Matrix
    !
    I would call your argument pathetically weak if it even was one. The level of stupidity you displayed in that post comparing socioeconomic and political systems and people to a scientific theory that is in no way related is truly beyond words.
  • TheBigSmuz
    !
    Well said, Dutch. This is the kind of bullshit I really can't stand. Bry, after reading your ridiculous post, I've noted that you need to realize four things:

    1. Your religious views are way out of date. Like, about 150 years. Work on that.
    2. As Dutch alluded, many of the worst atrocities ever committed by man, against man, were committed by Religious fanatics who believed they were doing God's work. This does indeed include Hitler.
    3. You don't understand Communism. Like, at all. If you did, you'd realize that comparing it to Hitler is downright contradictory; the political ideologies are polar opposites.
    4. The Cold War is over, and frankly, it was never quite like what you were taught. Communism has been the boogeyman in the USA for decades now, and that really needs to stop. I recommend you pick up a recent history textbook and read up on just how pointless and silly the whole thing was, and how despite citizens on both sides being pretty much the exact same hardworking patriotic people, they were pitted against one another through intense indoctrination in order to justify a series of geo-political dick-measuring contests such as the Space Race and the Arms Race. Communism will never be an invading force. If anything, Capitalism has that down to an art.
  • martydotcom
    !
    Congratulations on the most bizzare and obtuse linkage of Hitler to Evolution post ever written. BTW Hitler was a fascist not a communist. I you failed science believing in faith based Creationism vs fact based Evolution and Political Science associating Hitler with Communism. I Guess science of any sort isn't your strong point
  • Mercury34
    !
    Nazis and Communists are exact opposites of each other. Hitler believed in Eugenics. Eugenics is a gross misunderstanding of Evolution. I'd like to point out that one Creationist (William J. Tinkle) advocated eugenics.
    I'd also like to point out that many Creationists themselves are racist. George McCready Price,who is to Creationism what Darwin is to Evolution,referred to Blacks as "degenerates".
    Also Creationism is common in the Bible Belt. The Bible Belt is located in the south and the south fought to maintain slavery and segregation.
    Ansewers in Genesis said that blacks are the result of the "Curse of Ham". Basically they said that blacks are cursed. The "Curse of Ham" was also used to justify slavery.
  • View all 8 replies >
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