# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/81 "2010-05-17T12:29:33Z")
Of course, before Obama, the last three Democratic Presidents have been from the deep South as well. ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2010, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/82 "2010-05-17T13:23:04Z")
> [@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. No, basically people said “if you think the evidence supporting the Big Bang is on par with the evidence for a biblical creation you’re sadly mistaken”. You _could be_ an idiot, but chances are you simply don’t care one way or the other since neither help with the basics of life. BUT when it comes to policy direction it’s imperative that the people making decisions for you understand reality as best they can. Science is the best method we have for knowing reality and predicting with some degree of certainty how it works. Reliance on god or some dusty old collection of prophecies are less useful. ---
**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 17, 2010, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/83 "2010-05-17T14:42:56Z")
> [@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. You sound like one of those people who says “you shouldn’t make assumptions!”, since you couldn’t even function without them. You’re conflating the more vast definition of prejudice with the type which is socially harmful and usually morally wrong. If you’re willing to say that assuming all people who’ve won the nobel prize for physics are smarter than the average person is prejudiced, then it certainly can’t also carry the usual stigma of what the word prejudiced usually means. If you can’t judge people based on their beliefs and what they advocate because it’s prejudiced, what the hell can people do to give you the information you need to make a judgement on them? > [@](#): > > 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. No, I’m judging people who belief in and live their lives by ideas that are not only verifiably wrong, but patently ridiculous. We live in a world where more knowledge is available to anyone who wants it, where you have to remain purposely ignorant and stupid to hold onto these beliefs, let alone be so passionate about them that you advocate forcing others to be taught your views. I’m not pre-judging a group when the very purpose of that group is to promote an ignorant and wrong viewpoint. Again, if someone in here said “every single person from Alabama is dumb”, you might have a point, but since no one in this thread has gotten anywhere near that, you’re just being silly. > [@](#): > > 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. Ok - what would happen if this same attack ad ran in New York or Minnesota or some other random place that isn’t like a fucking 3rd world 14th century backwater? The candidate running the ad would be laughed off. Sure, a small fraction of the populations of those places would agree with it and it would appeal to them, but the vast majority of non-retards would be insulted by it and it would backfire. What happened in Alabama? It was so effective that the person being attacked rush to assure everyone that, no, don’t worry, don’t believe what they say, I’m a retard just like you guys! This means the beliefs of the voting public of the average Alabaman is clearly different than the voting public of other places. I am casting a judgement on that difference in belief. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 12:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/84 "2010-05-18T12:54:09Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > You are judging people to be stupid because they believe something you don’t. You say this like it’s the difference between two equally valid, reasonable viewpoints. It’s not. If these are people who have a say about what gets taught to children in public schools, then they have a duty to examine the issues. - If they come to the conclusion that evolution is something so wrong that it’s an insult to believe it to be true, then they are stupid. - If they didn’t examine the issues enough, then that is also the work of stupid. - If they secretly know evolution is true, but play up creationism to get elected by their stupid constituency, then they are both stupid, and stupidly working to keep the voters stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/85 "2010-05-18T14:04:16Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Well, yeah. If you assume that one group is smarter than another, you’ve hit on prejudice. Nope. Assuming that one group is smarter than another because the first group reaches rational conclusions based on evidence and the second group clings to what it wants to believe is _post_judice. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/86 "2010-05-18T14:07:30Z")
> [@Evil\_Captor](#): > > 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. “South Carolina is too small for a republic and too large for an insane asylum.” –James L. Petigru ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/87 "2010-05-18T20:37:21Z")
> [@AClockworkMelon](#): > > Um, excuse me? Please don’t generalize the south like this. They’re not all like that! The fact that you don’t hear about this stuff happening in New York, Seattle or San Diego is, um, well, a coincidence! Yep, only in the south. It’s not like you find creationism in Kansas or Minnesota. You’re a moron. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/88 "2010-05-18T20:54:17Z")
Wait a minute, I think I can check mate this: > [@AClockMelon](#): > > The fact that you don’t hear about this stuff happening in New York, **Seattle** or San Diego is… [The Discovery Institute](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Institute) BOOYA! WHO’S YOU’RE DADDY! ---
**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 18, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/89 "2010-05-18T20:54:47Z")
Well I don’t think anyone mistook Kansas for being non-retarded (it’s not considered part of the south? Culturally it seems to be), but what are you referring to in reference to Minnesota? > [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > Wait a minute, I think I can check mate this: > [The Discovery Institute](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discovery_Institute) > > BOOYA! WHO’S YOU’RE DADDY! What do you think this proves? Is the deeply ingrained cultural ignorance in one place offset by one institute that sets up its headquarters somewhere else? Any poll you look on the issue of creationism which accounts for region shows certain areas having more retards than others - do you seriously refute this? ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/90 "2010-05-18T20:59:19Z")
[Minnesota creationism](http://www.mnscience.org/index.php?id=163), but I really think the Discovery Institute wiki makes my point damn near inarguable. ---
**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 18, 2010, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/91 "2010-05-18T21:02:46Z")
Could you explain why? If hypothetically one state has 5% of the public believing the earth is flat and another state has 75% the people in that believe the earth is flat, would you consider them equally ignorant if the flat earth advocacy society set up their headquarters in the former state? ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/92 "2010-05-18T21:10:52Z")
Region is fucking irrelevant. Hell, let’s do the Brits! [_Guardian_ link.](http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2009/oct/25/teach-evolution-creationism-britons) > [@](#): > > Teach both evolution and creationism say 54% of Britons > > British Council poll finds UK adults overtake Americans in wanting science teaching in schools to include intelligent design Those inbred tractor pulling motherfuckers! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/93 "2010-05-18T21:15:05Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > Was he also accused of not having a “3” sticker in the back windw of his pick-em-up truck? > > I’m beginning to think the country would have been better off if the South won the Civil War, and went their own way. Let them have their lack of health care, their gay-free proms and yearbooks, their megachurches that pick and choose what parts of the New Testament are valid, their cable knife shopping networks, their pronunciation of Gaaw-DUH, and their schools that teach the Baby Jesus created the universe in seven days. That’d be kind of hard on Mexico, wouldn’t it? I mean, sure, they still have the South on their border - but an independent CSA isn’t a neighbor I’d wish on anybody. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/94 "2010-05-18T21:18:33Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > That’d be kind of hard on Mexico, wouldn’t it? I mean, sure, they still have the South on their border - but an independent CSA isn’t a neighbor I’d wish on anybody. Yep, the South will never be as enlightened and racially tolerant as states like Arizona. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/95 "2010-05-18T21:21:06Z")
[Arizona creationism!](http://jonathanturley.org/2009/07/07/creationism-goes-nuclear-arizona-state-senator-proclaims-that-earth-is-6000-years-old/) I can do this all day. Just pick a state. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/96 "2010-05-18T21:24:09Z")
> [@A Monkey With a Gun](#): > > Yep, the South will never be as enlightened and racially tolerant as states like Arizona. Arizona, though, is constrained by the federal government - there’s a limit to just how unpleasantly it can treat Mexico. The same is true of the Southern states on the border. My point - such as it was - was that it really is better for the world to have Southern conservatism (which is concededly far from universal) constrained by a Federal system. ---
**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 18, 2010, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/97 "2010-05-18T21:35:44Z")
I’ve seen a poll about how many people believe in evolution and it broke it down by region, like norhteast, south, midwest, etc. But I can’t find it now. Anyone know what I’m talking about or able to find the relevant data? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/98 "2010-05-18T21:37:30Z")
> [@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. Here is the definition from the on-line Merriam Websters > [@](#): > > 2 a (1) : preconceived judgment or opinion (2) : an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge b : an instance of such judgment or opinion c : an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics Saying all Alabamans are stupid would be prejudiced. Saying the Harvard PhDs are smarter than janitors is not - there are plenty of just grounds to say they are. If the evolution smear has legs, I think there are grounds to say that most Alabama Republicans are stupid - at least he ones likely to vote in the primary. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/99 "2010-05-18T21:38:43Z")
Anybody notice the ad, by saying evolution is liberal, admits that reality has a liberal bias? ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517/100 "2010-05-18T21:42:33Z")
> [@Creole\_Tomato](#): > > Look, the Bible belt is a frightening place, no doubt about it. But there are more people than you think who elect to stay there and work for progress. Change is slow, but the South has come a long way. In south Louisiana, we don’t consider ourselves part of that Bible belt (since the majority of us are hard-drinking Catholic crustacean suckers) but we’re not short on ignorance, we know. There is work to do. In 1978 I moved from Illinois to Lafayette, complete with long hair and a strong New York accent. Never got hassled once. Cajuns are good people. As for ignorance, at the time they were still speaking an unwritten language, and had been so isolated that there were different dialects of French in towns 20 miles apart. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/attack-ads-accuse-politician-of-believing-in-evolution/539517.md?page=6)