The Economy is Important in this Presidential Election, but the Protection of Science May Be Even More So!

In case anyone is in doubt about the GOP being an "anti-science" party -- and the important to that who we elect President on November 6th -- just consider some recent public statements made by a trio of prominent Republican Members of Congress two of whom also sit on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee. Rep Todd Aiken (R-MO), the GOP's candidate in the 2012 election for the US Senate seat currently held by Sen. Claire McCaskill. Akin, with whom Republican Vice Presidential candidate Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) has walked in lock step with for years on such social issues as abortion and denying women's rights to decide their own health issues, has not only said that a woman who is the victim of "legitimate" rape can't get pregnant, he also denies the existence of evolution.

"I've taken a look at both sides of the thing and it seems to me that evolution takes a tremendous amount of faith." Akin recently told a Tea Party gathering in Missouri. "To have all of the sudden all the different things that have to be lined up to create something as sophisticated as life, it takes a lot of faith. I don’t see it as even a matter of science because I don’t know that you can prove one or the other."

Here Mr. Akin not only has the "facts" of how life has evolved wrong, but he also conflates scientific proof with religious belief. Beliefs in religion are the ones that are dependent on "faith" which by definition not only does not require evidence to support it, but also rejects any and all evidence that conflicts with one's religions beliefs. Science, on the other hand, demands evidence which is then tested to prove its reliability, verifiability, and trustworthiness in order to be accepted in support its findings. The evidence that evolution is true has long ago been established, verified and proven by science and thus does NOT depend on "faith" to be believed as true.

Another prominent science denier on the House Science Committee is Dr. Paul Broun, a Republican member of Congress from Georgia who incredibly is also a physician. Broun, who is unopposed for reelection in November, denies not only evolution, but embryology, the Big Bang theory, and presumably global warming as well.

“God’s word is true. I’ve come to understand that. All that stuff I was taught about evolution, embryology, Big Bang theory, all that is lies straight from the pit of hell," Dr, Broun said on September 27 during a speech at a sportsman's banquet at Liberty Baptist Church in Hartwell, GA. "It’s lies to try to keep me and all the folks who are taught that from understanding that they need a savior. There’s a lot of scientific data that I found out as a scientist that actually show that this is really a young Earth.

"I believe that the Earth is about 9,000 years old. I believe that it was created in six days as we know them. That’s what the Bible says. And what I’ve come to learn is that it’s the manufacturer’s handbook, is what I call it. It teaches us how to run our lives individually. How to run our families, how to run our churches. But it teaches us how to run all our public policy and everything in society. And that’s the reason, as your congressman, I hold the Holy Bible as being the major directions to me of how I vote in Washington, D.C., and I’ll continue to do that.”

So Dr. Broun not only outright denies science, he also substitutes the Bible for the Constitution (to which he swore an Oath to uphold) as the ultimate authority to guide how he votes in order to impose his personal religious beliefs on us as opposed to enacting Constitutional laws on our behalf.

In June, 2011 former  GOP presidential primary candidate Rep Michele Bachmann (R-MN) also denied evolution as well as said she wants the government to pay for the enforced teaching of her personal religious beliefs to the contrary -- i.e., the creationist theory of intelligent design -- in publicly funded schools.

"I support intelligent design," Bachmann told reporters in New Orleans following a speech to the Republican Leadership Conference. "What I support is putting all science on the table and then letting students decide. I don't think it's a good idea for government to come down on one side of scientific issue or another, when there is reasonable doubt on both sides.

"I would prefer that students have the ability to learn all aspects of an issue," Bachmann said. "And that's why I believe the federal government should not be involved in local education to the most minimal possible process."

The election of the Romney/Ryan ticket in November would remove the critical safeguard of a Presidential veto of any anti-science laws that might be passed by Congress should it be controlled in both houses by the anti-science Republican party.  More importantly, however, it would also prevent the appointment of anti-science judges -- especially to the Supreme Court -- who would uphold such laws despite the provisions of the Constitution that prohibit the imposition of religious beliefs on the public by the Government.

The economy is of course an important issue in the November 6th General Election, but in many ways the protection of science is even more so because its profound influence on every aspect of our lives -- and the economy -- is far more critical for our survival as a great nation and world leader in every important area.