I wasn't aware that Catholic teachings in the States trod the Proddie line on this count? For some reason I was under the impression that Creationism is a preoccupation particular to [some] Protestant sects in the United States. Several Catholic friends have told me that their church discussions [in Bombay] have been holding up this view of things for a while now - to say nothing of state schools run by parishes which teach both the Catechism and evolution; thankfully not in the same class.
On Thu, Feb 12, 2009 at 1:32 PM, J. Andrew Rogers < [email protected]> wrote: > > On Feb 11, 2009, at 10:49 PM, Sumant Srivathsan wrote: > >> http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/faith/article5705331.ece >>> >>>> >>>> Vatican buries the hatchet with Charles Darwin >>>> >>> >>> Response time is trending in the right direction, though. It took them >>> till 1992 to admit Galileo was right: >>> >>> >>> >>> http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg13618460.600-vatican-admits-galileo-was-right-.html >>> >> >> >> There goes one extreme-right-wing political agenda for the GOP. Next up, >> "stem cells aren't even fish, and we eat those, don't we?" >> > > > To be fair, these beliefs have no significant party bias in American > politics. Creationists and their brethren claim affiliation with both > parties in roughly equal measure. As counter-intuitive as it is to many > people, creationism is not a "red state" phenomenon. Indeed, the least > religious states in the United States are primarily (western) "red" states > and some of the most religious are "blue" states. The reality is more > complicated than party politics; there are two major political parties but > at least a half-dozen very distinctive socio-cultural regions in the US. > > One of the ironies of Obama winning the election was that the large black > voter turnout guaranteed the landslide success of a diverse range of very > socially conservative initiatives. While the debate is rarely framed in > such terms, the strongest reservoirs of social conservatism in the US is in > racial minorities even though many such groups tend to have a strong > Democrat voting bias. > > Of course, the reality is that the percentage of the population that is > genuinely informed on any significant technically-oriented issue, never mind > the percentage that attempts to rationally evaluate such issues, is so small > as to fall below the noise floor. To the extent that intelligent policy > happens, it is almost purely accidental. > > > Cheers, > > J. Andrew Rogers > > > > -- roswitha.tumblr.com
