# Attack ads "accuse" politician of believing in evolution **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 15, 2010, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517 "2010-05-15T05:14:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/61 "2010-05-16T06:43:41Z")
> [@palacheck](#): > > I’m from NYC but I now live in Texas. Part of me wants to ridicule the people of the south … Texans don’t consider Texas to be part of “the South”. Texas is, well, Texas. Period. Full stop. Not a big deal, probably wouldn’t get you shot. Probably. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/62 "2010-05-16T06:59:14Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > No not really. I think the height of ignorance is deliberately ignoring facts that interfere with your world view. Calling people names just makes you a dick. Stating out loud what you think about someone, without calling them names, is just impolite. Calling someone out when they take part in behavior that harms society is a good thing. Nope, I can’t agree with this. Not knowing the facts makes you an idiot. Knowing them and ignoring them makes you stupid, or evil, or both. Any way you cut it, if one of these clowns actually gets elected it does not speak well for Alabama voters. Nor do any of their previous elections that I’m aware of. Honest question for those familiar with Alabama politics – has there been anyone elected to state-wide office who could reasonably be called liberal or progressive, ever? ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 8:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/63 "2010-05-16T08:12:55Z")
It is the republican primary in the deep south. Granted, it is embarrassing that a wealthy country in the 21st century has this going on, but it is still just members of the GOP in the deep south. I’m sure the members of the national front in the most conservative areas of France believe stupid shit too. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/64 "2010-05-16T08:24:08Z")
The percentage in Alabama claiming ‘no religion’ when asked jumped 7% from 1990-2008. [http://www.willwilkinson.net/flybottle/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/secularizing-america1.png](http://www.willwilkinson.net/flybottle/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/secularizing-america1.png) The atheism recruitment drive is working. Bill O’Reilly needs to hear about this. Why do we live in a town where the smartest have no power and the stupidest run everything? Maybe I should just move back to Alabama - Dr Hibbert. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/65 "2010-05-16T15:20:11Z")
> [@kevja](#): > > Alabama. What the hell did you expect? And who cares? > > I’m glad I live in a very blue city. But prove to me how the earth and the universe was created. Really prove it! > > The big bang makes as much sense to me as God created the world in six days and he rested on the seventh. > > Why do you all care so much? Because they’re tying to base GOVERNMENT FUCKING POLICY ON IT you jackass. You want to believe that JUSTIN FUCKING TIMBERLAKE is your lord and savior? That’s great. Fantastic. Build a goddamned shrine in your outhouse. But don’t try to run my government based on it. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![DanBlather](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/f4b2a3/32.png) [@DanBlather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DanBlather)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/66 "2010-05-16T15:50:57Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Texans don’t consider Texas to be part of “the South”. Texas is, well, Texas. Period. Full stop. That fact that it was part of the Confederacy makes that a dubious claim. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/67 "2010-05-16T18:14:22Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > That fact that it was part of the Confederacy makes that a dubious claim. As does the ubiquitous epithet “Yankee” directed toward people migrating or visiting from the Northern states, particularly states outside New York and New England who are not otherwise recognized as “Yankees” inside the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![NDP](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ndp/32/55_2.png) [@NDP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NDP)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/68 "2010-05-16T21:05:52Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > The percentage in Alabama claiming ‘no religion’ when asked jumped 7% from 1990-2008. > > [http://www.willwilkinson.net/flybottle/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/secularizing-america1.png](http://www.willwilkinson.net/flybottle/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/secularizing-america1.png) > > The atheism recruitment drive is working. Bill O’Reilly needs to hear about this. Categorizing people under “no religion” does not necessarily mean the same as categorizing them under “atheist.” I’d be willing to wager a majority of those people are spiritual independents who believe in a supreme being of some sort but choose not to belong to a specific organized sect. In any case, I think in the South, the slight increase in numbers of those who’ve lost faith in organized religion, is more than made up for by the zeal of those who haven’t. That’s why candidates can run ads trumpeting how much more pro-creationist they are than the other guy without the vast majority of voters thinking they’ve all lost their minds. ---
**Author:** ![kevja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/aeb1de/32.png) [@kevja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kevja)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/69 "2010-05-16T22:51:57Z")
> [@DanBlather](#): > > It will not be possible to prove it to you because you are too stupid to know the difference between the big bang, an explanation of the the beginning of the universe, and evolution, an explanation for the origins of species thought descent with modification. I know I’m not as smart as you or all the other great minds on this board, but for more than nine years I’ve read in GD and the Pit - God/no God. If you believe God created the Universe you’re an automatic idiot. And if you believe in evolution you’re damned to Hell for eternity. This thread will end up like the thousands on this board over the past decade - nowhere. No point will be proved, and the biggest thrill posters will get is to call anyone they disagree with ignorant. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/70 "2010-05-16T22:58:37Z")
> [@kevja](#): > > I know I’m not as smart as you or all the other great minds on this board, but for more than nine years I’ve read in GD and the Pit - God/no God. If you believe God created the Universe you’re an automatic idiot. And if you believe in evolution you’re damned to Hell for eternity. Really? You’ve heard posters hear say that “if you believe in evolution you’re damned to Hell for eternity”? ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/71 "2010-05-16T23:13:33Z")
And for that matter, I don’t think anyone cares that much about a generic, vast statement like “God created the universe”. I think it’s more along the lines that if you say “the fossil record you see is just a trick! God created the universe 6000 years ago with stars with the light already in transit, and cavemen road dinosaurs!” you get labelled an idiot. Deservedly. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2010, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/72 "2010-05-16T23:52:42Z")
Holy fuck. I’m surrounded by this bullshit constantly so sometimes it just dies down to a background noise level. You sort of get acclimated to it. You become hard to surprise and dismay. But sometimes it hits you all at once. You realize… WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON? WHAT FUCKING COUNTRY DO I LIVE IN? WHAT FUCKING CENTURY IS IT? FFS, politicians are good at knowing what bullshit to tell people, which means that there is good reason to suspect that this works well on Alabamans and isn’t so objectionable as to lose a big chunk of the non-retard vote. So we have someone who, when he was on the school boards and had a role in determining curriculum, advocated that the school should teach what… you know, actually exists. What we have millions of man hours and countless evidence and a thorough understanding of, what forms the fundamental basis of one of the most important arms of science, biology. And we have a (probably correct) politician who thinks that just pointing out this fact is both mockery and scorn, and will sway the vote against him. FOR FUCK SAKE, I LIVE IN THE SAME COUNTRY IN THE SAME CENTURY AS PEOPLE WHO THIS AD WILL WORK ON. And what’s even the guy’s response to all this? Not some middle ground religious bullshit about how you can not be a total retard and not take every word of the bible literally even when mountainous dicks worth of evidence are slapping you in the face, but instead he denied that he ever said anything halfway reasonable in the first place! He dropped what is reasonable like it was an old buddy who he disowned after the guy got convicted of child molestation. WHAT THE FUCK! This is not a fucking fringe case. This is the governorship of an entire fucking STATE IN THE MOST POWERFUL COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. This isn’t even just a fucking school district position in bumfuck Kansas. This is so fucking mainstream that they both feel safe (both the attacker and the defender who turned to denial instead) in mocking and distancing themselves from fucking mainstream scientific fact. What’s next? MR. WHATSHISFACE SAYS THE WORLD IS ROUND, BUT CLEARLY MATTHEW 51:4 SAYS THE WORLD IS FLAT. BURN HIM! ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/73 "2010-05-17T00:55:31Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > I live in Georgia, and all I have to say is a heartfelt, "Thank you Alabama, thank you for taking on the incredible task of making my elected officials, idiots that many of them are, look good in comparison to yours – and succeeding so brilliantly! In Alabama we’ve been facing Arizona and bowing thrice daily lately, but with election season coming that must now stop. Tim James is, I honestly believe, completely sincere in his religious mania and stupidity. His opponent Roy Moore, the former professional kickboxer turned world famous “10 Commandments Judge”, is I think a complete piece-of-shit opportunist who rode the controversy over a small courthouse display to millions of dollars in free publicity for major office and a lucrative post-impeachment speaking career. In a sort of bizarro Vidal-verse alternate of The Best Man, it’s scary to contemplate which one is the worse. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/74 "2010-05-17T01:04:58Z")
I was watching A MAN FOR ALL SEASONS for the umpteenth time the other day and while I know it takes liberties with the life of the real More (a man who had persecuted and burned Lutherans before his downfall) it is substantively true: he really did lose everything- fortune, freedom, and life- rather than betray his moral conscience and religious beliefs. I wonder how many of the posturing Fundies across the country would make the sacrifices he made when the non Christian zombies come versus how many would praise whatever god whose supporters would elect him. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/75 "2010-05-17T01:43:00Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > So if I say that Harvard PHD graduates are smarter than janitors, I’m prejudiced, right? OMG I said one group has a trait with a higher average than another! > > You’re twisting the insult to be overly broad (no one here suggested that every single individual Alabaman is stupid) in order to refute it, because you can’t actually refute what was said. Alabamans, on average, are indeed more ignorant than the rest of the country, at least on the matters we’re speaking of. Well, yeah. If you assume that one group is smarter than another, you’ve hit on prejudice. That’s all the word means. Yeah, it’s a generally accepted amount of prejudice, but still prejudice. There are no studies to help you, since there are no tests that are generally considered to actually measure intelligence. You are judging people to be stupid because they believe something you don’t. And you are the one stretching, since I pointed out that no one had said what I said yet. But it is how most people will interpret what is said. You are insulting a group of people to whom the other person belongs, and it shouldn’t surprise you if they feel personally insulted by that. If you really wanted to fend that off, you’d actually point out explicitly that you aren’t talking about all Alabamans, rather than preemptively calling everyone stupid who feels insulted by what you said. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/76 "2010-05-17T02:53:29Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Well, yeah. If you assume that one group is smarter than another, you’ve hit on prejudice. That’s all the word means. Yeah, it’s a generally accepted amount of prejudice, but still prejudice. There are no studies to help you, since there are no tests that are generally considered to actually measure intelligence. You are judging people to be stupid because they believe something you don’t. OK, never mind relative intelligence levels. The people the ad is aimed at are being dishonest in a way by deliberately mountains of evidence for a principle of science because they’re motivated a powerful political bias. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/77 "2010-05-17T05:12:14Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > I live in Georgia, and all I have to say is a heartfelt, "Thank you Alabama, thank you for taking on the incredible task of making my elected officials, idiots that many of them are, look good in comparison to yours – and succeeding so brilliantly! South Carolina is like the dotty old relative we Southerners used to keep locked in the attic in lieu of mental health care. Depending on how things are going, we either share a laugh over what she just said or did, or we shake our heads sadly, but we don’t take her seriously. ---
**Author:** ![Evil\_Captor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f17d59/32.png) [@Evil\_Captor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evil_Captor)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/78 "2010-05-17T05:18:47Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > You guys must bow to South Carolina and praise its name. South Carolina is like the dotty old relative we Southerners used to keep locked in the attic in lieu of mental health care. Depending on how things are going, we either share a laugh over what she just said or did, or we shake our heads sadly, but we don’t take her seriously. (Fixed misplaced quote on previous post) ---
**Author:** ![Cyberhwk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7993a0/32.png) [@Cyberhwk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyberhwk)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/79 "2010-05-17T06:15:42Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > It is the republican primary in the deep south. Granted, it is embarrassing that a wealthy country in the 21st century has this going on, but it is still just members of the GOP in the deep south. Because lord knows the deep south _never_ puts any Republicans in national government… ☹ ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/80 "2010-05-17T11:23:27Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > It is the republican primary in the deep south. Granted, it is embarrassing that a wealthy country in the 21st century has this going on, but it is still just members of the GOP in the deep south. > > I’m sure the members of the national front in the most conservative areas of France believe stupid shit too. I’m sure they do. The rest of the developed world tries to keep the loonies outside of mainstream politics. In the USA they find a happy home in the Republicans. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517.md?page=5)