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<div class="">December 7, 2012</div>
<h1>Dinosaurs and Denial</h1>
<h6 class="">By
<span><span>CHARLES M. BLOW</span></span></h6>
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<p>
Finally, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida — a Tea Party darling and
possible 2016 presidential candidate — admits that dinosaurs and humans
didn’t co-exist. </p>
<p>
Last month, <a href="http://www.gq.com/news-politics/politics/201212/marco-rubio-interview-gq-december-2012?currentPage=2">when GQ asked Rubio</a> “how old do you think the Earth is?” he stammered through an answer. </p>
<p>
“I’m not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says. I
can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that’s a dispute amongst
theologians.” He continued, “Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or
7 actual eras, I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to answer that. It’s one
of the great mysteries.” </p>
<p>
This week, <a title="A YouTube video" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=TgkyOnnFXPA">in an interview with Politico</a>, he attempted to mop up that mess. </p>
<p>
He said, “There is no scientific debate on the age of the Earth. I mean,
it’s established pretty definitively. It’s at least 4.5 billion years
old.” </p>
<p>
But then he hedged: “I just think in America we should have the freedom
to teach our children whatever it is we believe. And that means teaching
them science. They have to know the science, but also parents have the
right to teach them the theology and to reconcile those two things.”
</p>
<p>
Why the hedge? Because he is in a party of creationists. According to <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/155003/Hold-Creationist-View-Human-Origins.aspx">a June Gallup report</a>,
most Republicans (58 percent) believed that God created humans in their
present form within the last 10,000 years. Most Democrats and
independents did not agree. </p>
<p>
This anti-intellectualism is antediluvian. No wonder <a href="http://www.people-press.org/2009/07/09/section-4-scientists-politics-and-religion/">a 2009 Pew Research Center report found</a> that only 6 percent of scientists identified as Republican and 9 percent identified as conservative. </p>
<p>
Furthermore, a 2005 study found that just 11 percent of college
professors identified as Republican and 15 percent identified as
conservative. Some argue that this simply represents a liberal bias in
academia. But just as strong a case could be made that people who absorb
facts easily don’t suffer fools gladly. </p>
<p>
Last month, Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, the chairman of the Republican Governors Association, <a title="A YouTube video" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0GHyHdI7Z8">said on CNN</a>: </p>
<p>
“We need to stop being the dumb party. We need to offer smart, conservative, intelligent ideas and policies.” </p>
<p>
This is exactly the kind of turn the Republicans need to take, but
Jindal’s rhetoric doesn’t completely line up with his record. As The
Scotsman of Edinburgh <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/scotland/loch-ness-monster-cited-by-us-schools-as-evidence-that-evolution-is-myth-1-2373903">reported in June</a>,
“Pupils attending privately run Christian schools in the southern state
of Louisiana will learn from textbooks next year, which claim
Scotland’s most famous mythological beast is a living creature.” That
mythological beast would be the Loch Ness monster. </p>
<p>
The Scotsman continued: “Thousands of children are to receive publicly
funded vouchers enabling them to attend the schools — which follow a
strict fundamentalist curriculum. The Accelerated Christian Education
(ACE) programme teaches controversial religious beliefs, aimed at
disproving evolution and proving creationism. Youngsters will be told
that if it can be proved that dinosaurs walked the Earth at the same
time as man, then Darwinism is fatally flawed.” </p>
<p>
This is all because of a law that Jindal signed. Thankfully, last week <a href="http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-11-30/national/35586001_1_voucher-program-louisiana-school-boards-association-judge-tim-kelley">a state judge ruled</a>
that the voucher program is unconstitutional. But Louisiana isn’t the
only red state where creationism has state support. </p>
<p>
Kentucky has <a href="http://creationmuseum.org/about/">a Creationist Museum that warns visitors</a>
to “be prepared to experience history in a completely unprecedented
way,” according to its Web site. It continues: “Adam and Eve live in the
Garden of Eden. Children play and dinosaurs roam near Eden’s Rivers.”
Unprecedented is certainly one word for it. </p>
<p>
Now the museum group is planning to build a creationist theme park, <a href="http://www.kentucky.com/2011/05/20/1745988/43-million-tax-break-approved.html">with $43 million in state tax incentives</a>. It should be noted that Mitt Romney won Kentucky by 23 points last month. <a href="http://www.cnn.com/election/2012/results/state/KY/president">President Obama won only four</a> of Kentucky’s 120 counties. </p>
<p>
And the beginning of the world isn’t the only point of denial. So is the potential end of it. <a href="http://www.gallup.com/poll/153653/Americans-Worries-Global-Warming-Slightly.aspx">A March Gallup poll found</a>
that Republicans were much less likely than Democrats or independents
to say that they worried about global warming. Only 16 percent of
Republicans said that they worried a great deal about it, while 42
percent of Democrats and 31 percent of independents did. </p>
<p>
This as <a href="http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/news/ncdc-releases-november-2012-us-climate-report">the National Climatic Data Center reported</a>
that “the January-November period was the warmest first 11 months of
any year on record for the contiguous United States, and for the entire
year, 2012 will most likely surpass the current record (1998, 54.3°F) as
the warmest year for the nation.” </p>
<p>
Surely some of this is because of party isolationism and extremism and what <a href="http://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2012/11/frum-republicans-lied-to-by-conservative-entertainment-149120.html">David Frum, the conservative columnist, called</a>
the “conservative entertainment complex.” But there is also willful
ignorance at play in some quarters, and Republicans mustn’t simply brush
it aside. They must beat it back. </p>
<p>
If the Republicans don’t want to see their party go the way of the dinosaurs, they have to step out of the past. </p>
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<p style="text-align:center">•</p>
<p>I invite you to join me on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/CharlesMBlow">Facebook</a> and follow me on <a href="http://twitter.com/CharlesMBlow">Twitter</a>, or e-mail me at <a href="mailto:chblow@nytimes.com">chblow@nytimes.com</a>.</p>
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<br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Art Deco (Wayne A. Fox)<br><a href="mailto:art.deco.studios@gmail.com" target="_blank">art.deco.studios@gmail.com</a><br><br><img src="http://users.moscow.com/waf/WP%20Fox%2001.jpg"><br><br>