Rep. Jack Kingston mocked for statements on evolution & climate change (VIDEO)
America cries when our politicians flip-flop, go wishy-washy, so let’s give Kingston some credit.
“I don’t believe that a creature crawled out of the sea and became a human,” said Georgia Rep. Jack Kingston Friday on “Real Time” with Bill Maher.
The liberal mocking machine is coming out the woodwork to try to humiliate this man, and in turn, everyone who disagrees with evolution and climate change.
Maher tries not to be condescending while the other panelist, Kim Campbell, starts screaming “There’s total consensus” – “There certainly is…” In fact, that is 100% falsehood, especially after the climategate emails and peer review that followed. (Read more here)
Will Cain, National Review online, tries to call out their hypocrisy by illustrating that a hot summer, a hot decade etc…is still anecdotal to the earth’s history of millions of years.
I love the “science is settled” argument from folks that don’t have the ability to discuss the details of the science and hide behind their catch phrase: “Science is settled.”
“I believe I came from God and not from a monkey“, Kingston says as the audience and the panels loads up for the attacks.
So Kim Campbell arrogantly tries to be an expert or speak on the topic of ice analysis supposedly “millions of years old” proving that bogus data, the carbon dioxide levels, can be implanted into the minds of believers.
D.L. Hughley says in the discussion that ‘people can make their own truth’ and watching this panel is proof.
- Scientists weren’t running around to find an issue – yes they were. Initially it was Darwin and others seeking secular explanations absent from God.
- Jet stream over Siberia – data that indicates methane is 20 times more dangerous than carbon dioxide and is rooted in the belief that these molecules have been locked up for 10,000 years or longer are NOW rapidly releasing. Note that they haven’t been frozen in Siberia for millions or billions of years, but only 10,000. In NPR’s story (see below) Russian geologist Grigorii Zaichikov claims that the Siberian weather patterns are cyclical and the science is corrupted by the natural gas companies in Russia. Science is NOT settled, corrupt by politics which is Maher’s point early in the discussion, but only on the Republican and big oil side.
- 1970′s was full of fearmongering of the coming Ice Age and Global Cooling – Rep. Kingston is 100% correct. We are expected to hold the current data as factual when it’s made a 180 reverse in the opposite direction.
- Ms. Campbell again falsely attributes “overuse of antibiotics” to evolution when that is microevolution at best. The bacteria NEVER EVER evolved into a different organism. Rep. Kingston accurately called her out that this indeed is adaptation NOT evolution.
“You should be laughed at if you think…I’m sorry, if you don’t understand humans and monkeys came from a common anscester. That is reasonable in the 21st century. – Bill Maher
The gears had to shift a bit so Maher can try to mock the Representative and those who share his beliefs. Will Cain admits he DOES believe in evolution but D.L. Hughley admits he DOES NOT. Hughley accurately speaks for many Americans when he says that he believes in God, see God’s work in his life but can’t go along with the Republicans on many things that are NOT ‘God-like’ (i.e. gun ownership, subsidies to rich people).
So let the mocking begin:
Science blog: Climate change + Evolution + Republican Fool = Chaos on Maher
This is the picture at the Huffington Post
Huff Po sited a Gallup Poll: According to a Gallup poll released last month, 40 percent of Americans believe God is responsible for creating human life in its current form roughly 10,000 years ago.
The survey found that 52 percent of Republicans believe in creationism. 34 percent of Democrats and independents maintain the same view, the poll showed. An excerpt of analysis from Gallup:
The significantly higher percentage of Republicans who choose a creationist view of human origins reflects in part the strong relationship between religion and politics in contemporary America. Republicans are significantly more likely to attend church weekly than are others, and, as noted, Americans who attend church weekly are most likely to select the creationist alternative for the origin of humans.
These are a couple of the comments on that article:
“I’m becoming as intolerant with people who do not believe in science as those that want to base their own beliefs in creationism. I’d like to think I’m a better person than that, but I’m losing the battle. If only to find a place where I can be away from these vocal “believers”. I’m getting more upset every time I hear one of these people spout off. Especially those who are supposed to represent me. Religion has caused more destruction than any politician. When you combine the two the world is in jeopardy.”
“Hmmmm, I am more than convinced now that republikans are more related to Apes that we all could have imagined. Why are they denying their first cousins? I don’t know….SIBLING RIVALRY.”
“The collusion of religion and Republicanism is helpful to both. The churches get more contributions and the Rs get votes. In a life like we are leading these days, either grinding poverty or an unremittent workweek that barely provides for our survival, I can see how religion is a welcome opiate to many. It makes it seem that this long hard slog isn’t completely pointless, and all it takes is the same suspension of disbelief that we all use as we follow our favorite mindless fictions on tv.Religious “faith” then becomes a peerless manipulation tool. People who no longer care about rational explanations are easily led by baseless propaganda that flatters them and appeals to their emotions. ”
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6098974
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/30/jack-kingston-evolution_n_815909.html
STATE OF THE NATION – ABOUT THE AUTHOR
The “State of the Nation” column by Brandon Jones began on a website called Crazed Fanboy to discuss topics that the regular media were not reporting or barely discussed. While there was a strong political tone, there were no limits to topics or arenas discussed.
As the relationship with Crazed Fanboy deteriorated, the partnership between Robert Herriman (author “Insights”) and the Brian strengthen to for the current “Desk of Brian”.
Just as we have John Does or Average Joes, we created the “Regular Guy” approach to sorting through the news, adding our own commentary and opinions, fused with contributors from all over the globe.
Read past articles of “State of the Nation” by Brandon Jones click here
(SOTN banner created by Nolan B. Canova)
The Desk of Brian recommends:
Answering the Call by Rev William Magee
President Obama mocks 'In God We Trust' resolution & aide misquotes Bible
Bill Maher Quotes (UPD: you should be laughed for not believing in evolution)
All is well on inflation – Krugman in Wonderland
Glenn Beck Quotes (UPD: Shoot People in the head)
Boom Boom Shake Shake The Room (Still Too Asian) – Rants & Raves
Delaware Senate Debate: Christine O’Donnell and Chris Coons (FULL VIDEO and TRANSCRIPT)
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad interview on “This Week”: with Video
Wow, I fully understand these tenets that you bring up, in fact, they are further examples of the intracellular complexity revealed in molecular biology. These discoveries continue to confound the probability that these complex functions formed through random actions.
Your faith in climate alarmism aligns itself with Darwinism, yet both lack the ability to be proved through scientific experimentation.
What climategate illustrates is the corruuption in science, the manipulation of data and the observations used to create these theories.
I prefer to stay a scientific skeptic eager to ask questions and seek answers instead of cling to these scientific theories as a religious doctrine.
Whoever wrote this blog is profoundly stupid.
Your lack of understanding of fundamental tenets of biology and evolution shows.
Now, in terms of your knowledge of Climate Change and the degree to which “climateGate” e-mails are irrelevant to the science at hand, is also revealing.
Clinging to your ad hominem strawmen and other BS, you clearly are not aware of even the most basic contemporary aspects of Climate Change analysis; which brings us back to your lack of knowledge of -EVEN- evolution, and how disgusting it is when someone who probably doesn’t even know what hox genes nor Messenger or Transfer RNA, or EVEN a stop codon are, nor probably even knows what Chromosome II of humans reveals about our ancestry, attempts to attest knowledge of “evolution” in their ignorant statements.
Our idea of the truth is an interpretation of the information made available to us. And of course how we evaluate the accuracy of that information.
Scientific theory is what is held to be the most accurate interpretation of the data available at any given time. Our data is not complete, our interpretations not free from flaws.
When a thesis produces repeatable results, and those results can be put into practice, we can work from an assumption that it is correct. Just like I assume that my lamp is going to illuminate my desk when I turn it on. If my lamp fails to work on day my belief in lamp is not shattered. Because my lamp require no belief; it is just a tool. When my lamp breaks I will get a new one.
THE GREAT “GLOBAL WARMING HOAX”
The proposals to combat “GLOBAL WARMING” have more potential to destroy our freedom and prosperity than any issue since WORLD WAR II. The cost of energy is increased by all these proposals. Energy is contained in all the products used to sustain our lives.
These proposals will be devastating to the poor, where the cost of survival consumes all their income.
Do you realize that these proposals are to combat an issue that has not even been proven to exist?
AND YOU LAUGH AT DON QUIXOTE?
THESE PROPOSALS WILL ONLY ENHANCE THE POWER OF THE “PEERS.” “CAP AND TRADE WILL DESTROY YOUR WEALTH AND FREEDOM!!
BRACE YOURSELF, THOMAS PAINE, REJOICE YOU “PEERS” THE TYRANNY OF
KING GEORGE III IS BEING RESTORED BUT UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT!
http://commonsense21c.com/CLIMATE.html
in GA. i’d be willing to bet at least 80% of this state doesn’t believe in evolution or climate change. it’s just something you’re going to have to accept living in the south. we’re surrounded by morons and that probably won’t change any time soon.
Chris,
My “obtuse statement” is one of fact: beneficial mutations tend to be temporary and transient. Environmental conditions for example on bacteria do elicit changes and adaptations but they do not withstand the counterproductive mutation rate…in fact, identifying many “beneficial” mutations as a form of antagonistic pleiotropy descriptively suggests the limited value of the mutations.
Your examples are rooted in the fossil dates, which are inconsistent at best never exhibit anything but a random selection and not necessarily a true lineage. You are proving my point that everything MUST fit your paradigm
I can’t imagine that this author is serious, this site has to be like Christwire or something.
“Whatever ‘beneficial’ mutations that would arise would be quickly eradicated over millions of years up against the mutation rate.”
This purposefully obtuse statement could only be made by someone trolling, as even a calculator possesses the prerequisite logic to realize that beneficial adaptations are selected for and accrue over time. If he took the time to write this he’s obviously looked up the evidence in the fossil record of descent from homo to australopithecus to ardipithicus all the way back to proconsul.
Commenters, please don’t waste your time, he doesn’t believe what he writes.
I briefly entertained the idea of writing that thought down into my original post. The thing that stopped me was this: most people have a propensity for willful ignorance, but Creationists in particular have made an art form of it.
Think of the number of times those same arguments have to be rehashed: about missing links, radiometric dating, abiogenesis or the Big Bang theory, irreducible complexity, the plethora of evidence, the scientific hoaxes, the idea that we descended from monkeys, the “moving of goalposts”, that evolution is a religious belief, that evolution has never been observed, that it’s “just a theory”, etc.
No matter how many times you offer a factual or logical explanation demonstrating the evidence for evolution or for why there is little, if any, evidence for intelligent design, proponents of Creationism remain unconvinced. Even when proven wrong on a particular argument, they will use the exact same argument again and again without any sense of irony or any embarrassment whatsoever.
That is very unusual.
It is crazy, but these days it is politically correct to both be against climate change and evolution in the USA. In some states/cities/districts you have high concentrations of conservative electorate which is both religious and not well scientifically educated. This can basically guarantee you a place in city council, mayors post or even governors seat.
While I am a staunch proponent in evolution, I can see where a creationist could be coming from in saying that they believe in microevolution, but not macroevolution. Think of it this way: in order for enough changes to occur to allow for speciation, millions of years must pass (typically, anyway). If somebody honestly, from the bottom of their heart, believes that the earth is 6000 years old, then this position makes sense, as 6000 years would not be enough time for macroevolution to occur.
Thats like saying, i believe an object dropped will fall to the ground, but i dont believe in gravity. Its retarded.
To be fair, most creationists accept microevolution. They just don’t accept macroevolution.
But then they separate “microevolution” and “macroevolution” and say that small changes can occur, but not large changes that result in the differences between two genera.
I wish someone with just a little more scientific knowledge could confront these people. Give me two minutes and I could prove evolution to them.
Does every organism have DNA?
Yes.
Is DNA transmitted from parent to offspring?
Yes.
Does an organism’s DNA affect it’s ability to survive and reproduce?
Yes.
Would organisms with a more favorable set of genes for their environment be more likely to survive and reproduce?
Yes.
Would we then see those organisms with genes more suited to their environment become more common?
Yes.
That’s evolution. Changes in allele frequencies within populations over time.
Jason, I would propose that most supporters of Global Warming believe what their talking heads spelled out for them and they understand ANY of the science or the problems in the research. Similarly most evolutionary science is never questioned or challenged, especially the validity of radioisotope dating and the random dating of fossils.
I would like to propose that Creationists and Global Warming deniers don’t really believe what they are saying, but simply spout what they have been told to say/believe. Read about it here: http://www.jasonrizos.com/?p=125
I was going to join in on the criticism, but then I saw that this was on Bill Maher’s show. For a republican politician from Georgia to sit at a table with Bill Maher? That takes guts. Sure, the evolution thing is retarded, but I definitely never expected that conversation to be played out there.
The huge downside is that this only reinforces ‘southern accent == stupid’ stereotype. All you liberal Georgians need to wear it proud, now.
I used to live in Valdosta (in ATL now), and I’ve seen Kingston speak at a Town Hall health care meeting there. It was a room of conservatives and tea partiers and a handful of us liberals/academic types scattered around. I don’t think he’s actually an idiot, but he definitely panders to his audience. But hey, he’s a politician, so I expect it. I really wish he wouldn’t say dumb s**t on National TV though.
Big Evolution Discovery !
British professor Nigel Swiggerton of Chapsworth College has recently found a missing link in the evolution/creation debate. Everyone is familiar with the “stages of man” chart found in textbooks which begins with a naked, hairy, bent over, grunting Neanderthal type which over millions of years finally learns how to stand erect while sporting a 1930s-style haircut. Well, Dr. Swiggerton discovered that someone accidentally reversed the negative. It turns out that the first man was actually standing erect with a short haircut but has been descending over the years until he has finally reached the last stage – the stage at any rock concert filled with naked, hairy, bent over, grunting Neanderthal types!
(Ran across the preceding on the internet. Are overly blessed, underly grateful Americans aware that Darwin acknowledged the “Creator” on the last page of his “Origin of Species”? Why did he used this term if he meant an “unknown process”? When God allows some American city to be destroyed someday, will surviving American ingrates pray to the anti-Christian, anti-American Hollywood shmucks that the ingrates have long worshiped more than God? Thank God for Rep. Jack Kingston (GA) who does serve the Declaration of Independence’s “Creator” and the “God” mentioned in all 50 state constitutions – a congressman who was recently “crucified” on TV by God-hating shmuck Bill Maher and his fellow “nailers” for daring to uphold the creationism overwhelmingly embraced by America’s founders! For more on Maher etc., Google Jesus-bashers “Sandra Bernhard, Larry David, Kathy Griffin, Bill Maher, Joan Rivers, Sarah Silverman.”)
[saw all of the above on the net]
This is always the hardest thing for me to actually accept. They truly do believe this stuff. In light of all the evidence, they stay willfully ignorant of what they’re even arguing against. They just know that it is threatening their view of the world, and they’re pissed off about it.
In case anyone was wondering, he represents Georgia’s 1st Congressional District. That’s the entire coastline, Valdosta, Jesup, Douglas, Waycross, and Ft. Stewart/Hinesville.
Maybe it’s a personal prejudice, but I’d call that about the most backwater part of the state. It’s not surprising that Kingston’s got a play the anti-intellectual card to keep that constituency happy.
Centuries or not, the transition from one species to another would take thousands of precise changes genetically and physiologically.
The claim is evolution never matches the math. Mutation rates spread over a long, long time (6 million years for the hypothetical monkey/man split) would have yielded tons and tons of mutations.
Whatever “beneficial” mutations that would arise would be quickly eradicated over millions of years up against the mutation rate.
BTW, your hammer – sledgehammer analogy = subspecies of one another NOT separate species.
A hammer never becomes a screwdriver or a wrench
Even in fruit flies, such a change would take centuries. Human beings don’t live long enough to witness that. Also, allocating research funds to keeping a population of fruit flies alive for centuries might not get much attention.
So because human beings suck at living long (made in God’s image?) we make poor instruments for observing biological evolution on the macro scale. That is why we rely on auxiliary sources for understanding evolution on such a scale.
We use hand held hammers to hammer a nail but we use sledgehammers to hammer a railroad tie. Just because the device used for hammering has changed doesn’t mean that hammering doesn’t exist.
But isn’t that still just adaptation. They are still flies. The flies don’t evolve into another species
Natural selection, the underlying method by which evolution happens, is testable. Hundreds of generations of fruit flys can be raised in a few months and natural selection can be observed during such an experiment.
People grow extra digits all the time.
•http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polydactyly
•http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1070549/I-born-fingers-hand-reveals-Bond-Girl-Gemma-Arterton-startling-interview.html
testable? I’ll grant you that they can show small organisms adapting to environmental changes but I’ve never seen a lab test that shows anyone growing an opposable digit.
Not that I disagree with evolution just the word you used
But retardation is becoming a belief system.
Evolution is not a belief system. It is an explanation of a naturally occuring phenomenon supported by a large body of testable evidence.
How could it be that we don’t examine people we choose to lead us more carefully?
A good question would be “Do you believe in evolution”
I, for one, would rather have someone that could say “I’m not sure” than to prove beyond a doubt that they are anti-reason and live in their own version of reality.
He doesn’t believe that we came from the sea, he believes that the great spirit in the sky made us!! Which is less likely? I’d say the great spirit!!
Just a correction — Bill Maher said “You should be laughed at if you think… I’m sorry, if you don’t understand humans and monkeys came from a common anscester. That is ‘risible’ in the 21st century. – not “that is ‘reasonable’ in the 21st century”… and it is risible, I have to say, though mockery isn’t my personal style.
Kingston is some combination of profoundly stupid and mentally ill to say what he did.