Saturday, December 03, 2005

CYNTHIA DAVIS AT IT AGAIN

An earlier edition of CHATTER spent considerable time teeing off on Cynthia Davis, a Missouri lawmaker who seems to believe that science is worthless.

Davis, an especially virulent member of the radical right, tried in 2005 to get so-called intelligent design taught in Missouri public schools. Of course she failed, miserably; her bill didn't even come up for a vote in the full House.

But never fear. Much like the vampire, Cynthia Davis refuses to die. This week she vowed to reintroduce her ID legislation in the 2006 session. The Kansas City Star says Gov. Matt Blunt "earlier this year indicated he would at least consider intelligent design proposals."

According to the paper, Blunt said:
"I believe evolution is a theory, and there are other acceptable theories to explain the creation of Earth and the creation of man. I generally believe such decisions are best left to school districts."
Well, yes, some people believe aliens invaded Earth and had sex with early humans. Care to teach that in high-school science, governor?

Cynthia Davis, meanwhile, told the paper that she only wants kids to hear "both sides" of this fake controversy:
"For years, the proponents of evolution have asked the students to just take a lot by faith: Time plus magic equals life," she said. "There are some parts of evolution that don't add up."
Davis also said "Kansas is doing the right thing" by changing the definition of science and shunning evolution. We're curious to see how far her Republican colleagues will let Davis go before they silence her ill-informed rants.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Cynthia Davis seems to be very eager to get back in the headlines with further demonstrations of her blithering ignorance, blurting out the kind of gaffes the newspaper reporters love to copy. My two favorites from the Kansas City Star article of Dec. 2 http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/13306721.htm
are:

In comparing the proponents of evolution to the 17th Century Church fathers:

“You look at Galileo who was criticized as being a heretic because he thought the earth revolved around the sun instead of the other way around,”

On the date Representative Davis made this comment, Italian seismologists reported a slight disturbance in the vicinity of the Galileo family tomb in the Basilica of Santa Croce, while the father of modern astronomy turned over in his grave.

and:

Her remarkable ability to ascribe precisely her own logical failings to her opponents. I guess this is a symptom of all those on the right:

“For years, the proponents of evolution have asked the students to just take a lot by faith: Time plus magic equals life,” she said. “There are some parts of evolution that don’t add up.”

I can’t think of a better capsule comment on the serious defects of unscientific Intelligent Design and creationism: “take it on faith” and “Time plus magic equals life.” That’s the Genesis creation myth for you in a nutsack. And is there any respectable scientist or historian alive today who thinks the Bible adds up according to the canons of their disciplines?

What this woman doesn’t know could fill literal volumes – possibly even exceeding the entire historic record of science itself. I certainly hope she is as inept at political strategy as she is at the higher cognitive brain functions. After having studied the late mayor of Chicago, Richard J. Daley at close range for years, I have found the two are often mutually exclusive categories.

I think there is cause for optimism however in this article, in that Davis’ more rational peers in Missouri government seem to be making noises to the effect that they do not want to touch this issue with a rather sizable barge pole. I hope this consensus holds when Rep. Davis reincarnates the latest version of HB-35 in January.

Peace.

Bob Boldt

Anonymous said...

"We're curious to see how far her Republican colleagues will let Davis go before they silence her ill-informed rants."


November 8, 2006

see www.venganza.org The Flying Spaghetti Monster was responsible for it all. May his marinara never spoil.