-
Trouble logging in? Send us a message with your username and/or email address for help.
The lonely 6 percent
- Thread starter Bob
- Start date
walk the walk
Beach Fanatic
If one man is right,he is the majority-Abraham Lincoln
30ashopper
SoWal Insider
beachmouse
Beach Fanatic
Part of it is that the Republicans are doing their absolute best to drive the scientists and scientifically-minded out of their party. The outgoing Congressman for my parents' district is one of the 6%- he's a Republican who was a tenured physics professor before he got involved in local politics and through a chain of events, ended up in Congress. My Dad's worked on multiple projects with the Member, and he knows Dad well enough that he'll be fairly open and honest with him.
And after they did their last tv show together this fall, they got to talking and the Congressman essentially said that he was becoming more and more certain all the time that his decision not to run again was the right one because the Republican Party that had been there when he started was pretty much gone and replaced by people who were so convinced that they were on the one true path that they'd utterly refuse to look at any evidence to the contrary, no matter how conclusive it was and how, while he'd always voted with his party 80-90% of the time, he was disgusted at the new standards of ideological purity that the current form of the party was insisting on and how if he had stayed, he was probably going to get himself branded a 'bad Republican'. He also couldn't stand the Republican nominee who was likely to (and did end up) replacing him- thought he had neither the experience nor the brains to do a competent job in looking after the interests of the people of his district.
And you can see his point in the bigger picture. The two loudest branches of the Republican party right now are the Christian fundamentalists who are actively hostile to a lot of major research going on in the biological sciences right now, and who also have issues with physicists and geologists who are inherently going to challenge the literal interpretation of the Genesis creation story, and the populists who regard intellectual curiousity and true high academic standards and academic success as indicators of liberal elitism.
I suspect that a good majority of the 30% in the poll that describe themselves as independents actually do hold a lot of core Republican values. However, they refuse to identify with a group that seems to want to drive them away from the party, which is understandable.
Why bang your head against the wall like that, or go where you are told you're not wanted?
And after they did their last tv show together this fall, they got to talking and the Congressman essentially said that he was becoming more and more certain all the time that his decision not to run again was the right one because the Republican Party that had been there when he started was pretty much gone and replaced by people who were so convinced that they were on the one true path that they'd utterly refuse to look at any evidence to the contrary, no matter how conclusive it was and how, while he'd always voted with his party 80-90% of the time, he was disgusted at the new standards of ideological purity that the current form of the party was insisting on and how if he had stayed, he was probably going to get himself branded a 'bad Republican'. He also couldn't stand the Republican nominee who was likely to (and did end up) replacing him- thought he had neither the experience nor the brains to do a competent job in looking after the interests of the people of his district.
And you can see his point in the bigger picture. The two loudest branches of the Republican party right now are the Christian fundamentalists who are actively hostile to a lot of major research going on in the biological sciences right now, and who also have issues with physicists and geologists who are inherently going to challenge the literal interpretation of the Genesis creation story, and the populists who regard intellectual curiousity and true high academic standards and academic success as indicators of liberal elitism.
I suspect that a good majority of the 30% in the poll that describe themselves as independents actually do hold a lot of core Republican values. However, they refuse to identify with a group that seems to want to drive them away from the party, which is understandable.
Why bang your head against the wall like that, or go where you are told you're not wanted?
walk the walk
Beach Fanatic
I am all for religious freedom but I do frown upon people taking shots at someone else's religious outlook and beliefs.If you think we came from an amino acid and a droplet of h20,then that is your perogative but don't judge others with differing views,it just shows shallowness and insecurity in ones self and ones values as a human being.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
LuciferSam
Banned
Science requires an openness to new ideas and is incompatible with rigid and dogmatic thinking. Religion certainly plays a role. It's safe to say that most scientists are atheists.
LuciferSam
Banned
I don't think there is anything at all wrong with critically evaluating any beliefs religious or otherwise. It's certainly going to involve judgement if it can be shown that a person's beliefs contradict reality and that person fails to admit it.
walk the walk
Beach Fanatic
Be sure to tell that to the media about Islam.Maybe Islam is immune to criticism and christianity is the sacrificial lamb for science and media outlets.Interesting.