brian's blog

From MSNBC / AP, Frist voices support for ‘intelligent design’:

[Senate Majority Leader] Frist, a doctor who graduated from Harvard Medical School, said exposing children to both evolution and intelligent design "doesn't force any particular theory on anyone. I think in a pluralistic society that is the fairest way to go about education and training people for the future."

Yes. The fairest and most effective way to educate our children is to expose them to every single nutjob theory out there. Bonus points if that theory is poorly veiled religious dogma.

Well, that's not quite fair of me. I do fully support teaching kids about Flying Spaghetti Monsterism in school.

This is particularly disgusting due to Frist's credentials: a Harvard-educated medical doctor. Because of his standing, he deserves to be held to a higher standard when he speaks of science. This isn't some layman's opinion. He's expected to be reasonably educated in these sorts of matters. And he should know the weight of evidence behind evolution is overwhelming.

But this is hardly the first time Frist has ignored science in favor of politics. To support a government abstinence program, he infamously (and falsely) declared that "you can get [HIV] in tears and sweat." Then he announced that he believed Terri Schiavo was not in a persistent vegetative state despite a) not being a neurologist, and b) not having personally examined her.

And he's not the only doctor in support of creationism. From Scientific American's 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense, almost 30% of those with postgraduate degrees agreed when queried if "God created humans in their present form within the past 10,000 years or so."

Sigh.