Re: Sam Brownback: Teach the controversy

In article <b79r335ud9ojl1p3v8vou7aiaevsusaach@xxxxxxx>,
notreally@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx says...
From the article:
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In a new twist on the debate among Republicans over how to balance
their religious and secular values, three of the Republican candidates
raised their hands at the debate when asked if any of them did not
believe in evolution. They were Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas; former
Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Rep. Tom Tancredo of Colorado.

Huckabee told reporters Friday that if he had been given time to
explain his view, he would have said, "If you want to believe that you
and your family came from apes, I'll accept that," adding, "I believe
there was a creative process."

Huckabee said that he did not object to the teaching of evolution as a
theory in public schools and that he did not expect public schools to
teach creationism.

"We shouldn't indoctrinate kids in school," he said. "I wouldn't want
them teaching creationism as if it's the only thing that they should
teach."

Brownback said in an interview that he presumed the question meant
that there was no God involved. "I find there are too many
complexities in the cell and wonders in the mind" to believe in
evolution, he said.

Brownback also said that the controversy over evolution should be
taught in schools, "particularly the question of how did we get the
first life here on earth."

Asked if his view was out of the mainstream, he said, "Not in
America."

Tancredo's office released a statement saying: "Evolution explains
changes in life. Creationism explains its origin."

Their views are not all that different from President Bush's, as he
expressed it in 2000. "I'd make it a goal to make sure that local
folks got to make the decision as to whether or not they said
creationism has been a part of our history and whether or not people
ought to be exposed to different theories as to how the world was
formed," Bush told The Associated Press in his first presidential
campaign.

Catering to the far right

On Thursday, the evolution question was first asked of Sen. John
McCain of Arizona, who said he believed in it. After the others raised
their hands, McCain amended his answer, saying, "But I also believe,
when I hike the Grand Canyon and see it at sunset, that the hand of
God is there also."

Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science
Education, which advocates the teaching of evolution in schools, said
the candidates, given their positions on other issues, were
undoubtedly sincere but were nevertheless appealing to a
fundamentalist wing of their party.

"Nine Republican state parties have taken anti-evolutionist
positions," Scott said. "They want to throw the far right a little red
meat, and creationism serves nicely."
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Read it at http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/politics/4779046.html


--
"We have succeeded for 205 years in keeping the affairs of state
separate from the uncompromising idealism of religious groups and
we mustn't stop now. To retreat from that separation would violate
the principles of conservatism and the values upon which the
framers built this democratic republic."

--Barry Goldwater, "Mr. Conservative"

.

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